Maldives and Libya join Arab nations to cut ties with Qatar

Maldives and Libya's governments joined the five Arab nation in cutting their diplomatic ties with Qatar.

Five Arab nations had cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terror, which led to a diplomatic crisis affecting transport, oil and geopolitical instability.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain have suspended all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar and ejected its diplomats from their territories. Saudi also expelled Qatar troops from Saudi-led fighting in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia said it did so Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region”, including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Islamic State and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive eastern province of Qatif, according to Guardian.

Egypt’s foreign ministry claimed that all attempts to stop Qatar from supporting terrorist groups failed. It also accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” toward Egypt.

Bahrain listed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” as reasons for its decision to cut diplomatic ties.

Saudi and the UAE were worried about Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood – a Sunni Islamist political group, which was outlawed by both as it challenges those nations’ hereditary rule.

Yemen joined the others by stating, "Qatar's practices of dealing with the (Houthi) coup militias and supporting extremist groups became clear," the government said in a statement.

Maldives and Libya joined the Arab nations but have not given immediate explanation of their move.

Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry said there was “no legitimate justification” given by all the countries’ for their decision, according to Aljazeera report.

Qatar explained that the decision was in "violation of its sovereignty". "The measures are unjustified and are based on claims and allegations that have no basis in fact," the statement released by Qatar government read.

The statement said that the decisions would "not affect the normal lives of citizens and residents".

However, the blocking of air, land and sea routes have affected the citizens. Qatar Airways, one the major carriers, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia.

Bunch of unmarked planes were mapped over Qatar, after the flights were suspended.

Bunch of unmarked planes taking off from central #Qatar... pic.twitter.com/MTNpfV2j01

— Andrew Leber (@AndrewMLeber) June 5, 2017

Similarly, major carriers outside Qatar have announced to suspend all their flights to Qatar and its capital, Doha.

Etihad, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier, said it would suspend flights to Qatar “until further notice”; Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, announced it would suspend Qatar flights starting on Tuesday; and Dubai-based budget carrier flydubai said it would suspend flights to and from Doha from Tuesday.

Citizens in Qatar were also seen stocking food from the supermarkets suspecting the impact of countries decision on supply of goods as transport routes are being affected.

Qatar residents rush to stock up on food after border closed https://t.co/pJq1roiUum

— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) June 5, 2017

Qatar's stock market also started to tumble after the gulf countries cut their ties. The Brent crude oil went up 1.7 percent today to USD 50.7/b.

Many stocks - particularly energy companies - have slumped by 10%, which is the maximum daily move allowed by regulators.

Even the best-performing stock on the QSI index is down 6%, as investors are spooked by the sudden freeze in relations with other Gulf states.

Earlier, the five gulf countries had blocked Qatar's state-run news agency, including Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera, that allegedly published fake comments from its ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani about Iran and Israel.

The emir was quoted as saying: “Iran represents a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it,” the ticker at Qatari state television’s nightly newscast read at one point.

However, Qatar later alleged that state's site was hacked. Qatar’s communications office rushed out an explanation saying the stories were completely untrue and had “no basis whatsoever”.

Qatar has always been criticized by its Arab neighbours over its support to Islamists. In March 2014, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar when it had a rift with gulf countries over its backing of then-Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood member.

Eight months later, they returned their ambassadors as Qatar forced some Brotherhood members to leave the country and quieted others.

Since then Qatar repeatedly and strongly denied it funds extremist groups. However, it remains a key financial patron of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and has been the home of exiled Hamas official Khaled Mashaal since 2012.

Current situation might seem quite similar to that in 2014 as a few reports claim Qatar has expelled a group of senior Hamas officials.

Qatar has expelled a group of senior Hamas officials from the country. They'll go to Lebanon, Turkey, Malaysia. https://t.co/8hL72f3zLO

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) June 5, 2017

However, whether the six countries will reconsider their diplomatic ties with Qatar after this move is still doubtful as the 2014 crisis did not see a land and sea blockade.