A Gulf summit that was supposed to take place at the beginning of April in Washington, DC has been postponed to September, a number of United Statesofficials said, Al Jazeera reports.

According to Reuters news agency, the decision came as a result of US President Donald Trump's busy schedule of diplomatic meetings, and the absence of a secretary of state, until CIA director Mike Pompeo is officially sworn in.

Some US officials said that the delay was also an indication that Washington had not yet made progress to end the Gulf crisis.

The leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were meant to meet on April 1 for the first time since diplomatic sanctions on Doha were imposed last year by the aforementioned countries including, Bahrain and Egypt.

One US official said there was a general consensus that it would be better to postpone the summit after the month of Ramadan, or beyond mid-June, according to Reuters. </s> A Gulf summit that was supposed to take place at the beginning of April in Washington, DC has been postponed to September, a number of United States officials said.

According to Reuters news agency, the decision came as a result of US President Donald Trump's busy schedule of diplomatic meetings, and the absence of a secretary of state, until CIA director Mike Pompeo is officially sworn in.

Some US officials said that the delay was also an indication that Washington had not yet made progress to end the Gulf crisis.

The leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were meant to meet on April 1 for the first time since diplomatic sanctions on Doha was imposed last year by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.

The blockading Arab quartet had cut off ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and regional ally Iran. Qatar denies the allegations.

One US official said there was a general consensus that it would be better to postpone the summit after the month of Ramadan, or beyond mid-June, According to Reuters.

The same source added that the summit was discussed during the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington, and that there were developments on starting discussions.

"There is a movement to start a dialogue and allow more time for the summit," the official told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the US National Security Council said that Trump is committed to resolving the Gulf crisis this month, and that the US-Gulf summit was not linked to the Gulf crisis.

Meanwhile the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Haman Al Thani received a telephone call from Trump on Tuesday.

The two leaders discussed strategic relations between Qatar and the United States, including the two countries' joint efforts in combating extremism and terrorism, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

In a statement, the White House said Trump and the Emir agreed on the importance of regional unity to address security threats.

"The leaders discussed Iran's increasingly reckless behaviour in the region and the threat it poses to regional stability," the statement read.

The statement also said that Trump thanked the Emir for Qatar's continued commitment to counter terrorist financing and extremism.

Trump then contacted Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, and stressed the importance of resolving the Gulf crisis in order to restore the unity of the GCC, to safeguard the security of the people in the region. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is postponing until September a summit with Gulf Arab leaders that had been planned for this spring amid an ongoing dispute between Qatar and other U.S. allies in the region, according to five U.S. officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The decision to delay the May summit with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council reflects a crowded diplomatic calendar, and the fact that President Donald Trump is without a secretary of state until the Senate confirms current CIA Director Mike Pompeo, two of the officials said.

Other sources, however, told Reuters the delay is also a nod to the fact that Washington has made little progress so far in ending the bitter standoff between Qatar and other Gulf nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The dispute pits key U.S. allies against each other, and has complicated efforts to maintain a united front against Iran. So far, though, it has not affected the U.S. air base in Qatar that supports attacks on Islamic extremists and surveillance of Iran — both of which the Saudis and Emiratis support.

“This was entirely our decision,” one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the delay.

“We have too many irons in the fire in May,” the official added, noting that Trump may be meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month, and that Pompeo has yet to be confirmed to replace Rex Tillerson.

A spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said the delay was not tied to the tensions over Qatar, adding that, “President Trump is committed to resolving the Gulf dispute this month.”

Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on March 21. He is due to meet with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani next week, followed by a meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

Trump spoke by phone with al Thani on Tuesday and with Saudi King Salman on Monday, emphasizing to each the importance of resolving the Gulf dispute, the White House said.

Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar last June, accusing it of backing their archrival, Iran, and supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the charges and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty and rein in its support for reform.

A senior U.S. official said the summit was discussed during Salman’s Washington visit, and there was agreement that it would be better to delay the meeting until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in mid-June.

“We’ll see what transpires between now and then, but based on the discussions to date, it is hard to be optimistic about a rapprochement” between Qatar and its neighbors, he said.

However, two officials involved in the discussions said there recently have been signs of flexibility, including from Saudi Arabia.

“I think it makes sense (to delay the summit) as there seems to be movement on the beginning of a dialogue and more time to let it develop would be helpful,” one said. </s> Qatar will not be represented by a senior official at an Arab summit taking place in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, in a sign that a nearly year-old dispute between Gulf Arab neighbours is still a long way from being resolved.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charges and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.

The Qatari delegation will be headed by Doha's permanent representative to the Arab League, Saif bin Muqaddam al-Buainain, the state news agency said without elaborating.

Most of the 22 other countries are represented by heads of state or government. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani headed Qatar's delegation at last year's Arab summit in Jordan.

Sheikh Tamim returned to Doha on Saturday from a U.S. trip where he met President Donald Trump, who had publicly sided with the Saudis and Emiratis early in the crisis, but is now pushing for a resolution to restore Gulf Arab unity and maintain a united front against Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Thursday that Qatar's crisis would not be on the table at the Arab League summit, Al Arabiya reported.

Ahead of the summit, the four boycotting nations reaffirmed that their demands on Qatar — including closing Al Jazeera television station and reducing ties with Iran — were "a necessary basis" for a resolution to the crisis.

The summit is expected to focus heavily on Syria and Iran.

Saudi Arabia is pushing for a tough, unified stance against its regional rival Iran at the annual gathering of the 22-member Arab League.

The two regional titans, locked in proxy wars in Syria and in Saudi Arabia's southern neighbor Yemen, back opposing parties in Iraq and Lebanon.

The summit begins 24 hours after the U.S., France and Britain launched controversial missile strikes in war-torn Syria in response to a reported Assad regime chemical attack on the decimated opposition enclave of eastern Ghouta last week. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed efforts by the leader of Kuwait, a staunch American ally, to mediate a festering diplomatic crisis involving Qatar and its Arab neighbors that could have implications for the U.S. military presence in the region.

However, the quartet of Arab nations now boycotting Doha issued a strongly worded statement early Friday morning dismissing some of Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah's comments, signaling the diplomatic crisis roiling the Gulf is far from over.

At a White House news conference with Sheikh Sabah, Trump said he appreciated the emir's thus-far unsuccessful bid to end the dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. He applauded Kuwait's "critical contributions to regional stability" but also repeated an offer to mediate himself, particularly between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He suggested a deal would be "worked out very quickly" if he became personally involved.

Trump said all the countries involved — members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — are "essential partners" with the United States in efforts to crack down on extremism, including the fight against Islamic State group. "We will be most successful with a united GCC," he said. "We will send a strong message to both terrorist organizations and regional aggressors that they cannot win."

His comments came after he sent conflicting signals about where he stands on the dispute. Trump initially appeared to side with Saudi Arabia, but then instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to support the Kuwaiti mediation effort. Still, the dispute has dragged on for more than three months, even after Tillerson shuttled between the parties in July and dispatched two other U.S. envoys to bolster the 88-year-old Kuwaiti emir's initiative.

The crisis erupted June 5 when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all cut ties to Doha over allegations Qatar funds extremists and has ties that are too warm with Iran. Qatar, which hosts a U.S. military base critical to the effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has long denied funding extremists. It recently restored full diplomatic ties to Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field that makes its citizens among the world's wealthiest.

In his comments, Trump offered a pointed reminder that terrorism financing is at the heart of the crisis. At one point he said the dispute "began because of that fact that there has been massive funding of terrorism by certain countries." He did not identify those countries, but in June he had made reference to Saudi and other Arab complaints about Qatar.

For his part, Sheikh Sabah said he remained hopeful that a resolution to the crisis could be reached. He noted that Qatar had been presented with a list of 13 demands by the other countries and was willing to discuss them. Although Qatar has rejected some of them out of hand, Sheikh Sabah said he believed negotiations were possible.

"I am optimistic that the solution will come in the very near future," he said. "The hope has not ended yet."

That hope appeared in jeopardy early Friday with a statement by the boycotting countries saying "any dialogue on meeting their demands should not be preceded by any prior conditions." The statement, which said the countries "regret" several of the comments by Sheikh Sabah, represents an unusual rebuke in the clubby world of Gulf Arab nations.

The nations also said a military intervention "has not been and will not be considered" to end the crisis, something mentioned by Sheikh Sabah in his remarks as once a possibility. However, Qatari exiles whom analysts believe are backed by the boycotting countries have repeatedly called for a coup in Qatar, while Saudi columnists at state-backed newspapers have repeatedly suggested an invasion to overthrow Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

In response to a reporter's question, Trump briefly spoke about his administration's efforts to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Trump plans to meet both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

"I think we have a chance of doing it," he said. "I think the Palestinians would like to see it happen, I think the Israelis would like to see it happen." </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed efforts by the leader of Kuwait, a staunch American ally, to mediate a festering diplomatic crisis involving Qatar and its Arab neighbors that could have implications for the U.S. military presence in the region.

However, the quartet of Arab nations now boycotting Doha issued a strongly worded statement early Friday morning dismissing some of Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah’s comments, signaling the diplomatic crisis roiling the Gulf is far from over.

At a White House news conference with Sheikh Sabah, Trump said he appreciated the emir’s thus-far unsuccessful bid to end the dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. He applauded Kuwait’s “critical contributions to regional stability” but also repeated an offer to mediate himself, particularly between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He suggested a deal would be “worked out very quickly” if he became personally involved.

Trump said all the countries involved — members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — are “essential partners” with the United States in efforts to crack down on extremism, including the fight against Islamic State group. “We will be most successful with a united GCC,” he said. “We will send a strong message to both terrorist organizations and regional aggressors that they cannot win.”

His comments came after he sent conflicting signals about where he stands on the dispute. Trump initially appeared to side with Saudi Arabia, but then instructed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to support the Kuwaiti mediation effort. Still, the dispute has dragged on for more than three months, even after Tillerson shuttled between the parties in July and dispatched two other U.S. envoys to bolster the 88-year-old Kuwaiti emir’s initiative.

The crisis erupted June 5 when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all cut ties to Doha over allegations Qatar funds extremists and has ties that are too warm with Iran. Qatar, which hosts a U.S. military base critical to the effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has long denied funding extremists. It recently restored full diplomatic ties to Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore natural gas field that makes its citizens among the world’s wealthiest.

In his comments, Trump offered a pointed reminder that terrorism financing is at the heart of the crisis. At one point he said the dispute “began because of that fact that there has been massive funding of terrorism by certain countries.” He did not identify those countries, but in June he had made reference to Saudi and other Arab complaints about Qatar.

For his part, Sheikh Sabah said he remained hopeful that a resolution to the crisis could be reached. He noted that Qatar had been presented with a list of 13 demands by the other countries and was willing to discuss them. Although Qatar has rejected some of them out of hand, Sheikh Sabah said he believed negotiations were possible.

“I am optimistic that the solution will come in the very near future,” he said. “The hope has not ended yet.”

That hope appeared in jeopardy early Friday with a statement by the boycotting countries saying “any dialogue on meeting their demands should not be preceded by any prior conditions.” The statement, which said the countries “regret” several of the comments by Sheikh Sabah, represents an unusual rebuke in the clubby world of Gulf Arab nations.

The nations also said a military intervention “has not been and will not be considered” to end the crisis, something mentioned by Sheikh Sabah in his remarks. However, Qatari exiles whom analysts believe are backed by the boycotting countries have repeatedly called for a coup in Qatar, while Saudi columnists at state-backed newspapers have repeatedly suggested an invasion to overthrow Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

In response to a reporter’s question, Trump briefly spoke about his administration’s efforts to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Trump plans to meet both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

“I think we have a chance of doing it,” he said. “I think the Palestinians would like to see it happen, I think the Israelis would like to see it happen.”

In Kuwait, media reports on Thursday focused on the emir’s visit to Washington as a sign of the strong relationship the two countries have, including when a U.S.-led coalition expelled occupying Iraqi forces from the small nation during the 1991 Gulf War. Today, Kuwait hosts some 13,500 American troops, many at Camp Arifjan south of Kuwait City, which also is home to the forward command of U.S. Army Central.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Hussain al-Qatari in Kuwait City contributed to this report. </s> By The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Leaders in Qatar and Saudi Arabia have had their first high-level contact since a diplomatic crisis engulfing Doha began three months ago, but the terms of what was discussed are now in dispute.

Both governments acknowledged early Saturday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The state-run Qatar News Agency then published an account of the call saying the two countries agreed to send envoys to resolve the ongoing diplomatic crisis.

A short time later, the state-run Saudi Press Agency published a statement disputing that, saying the call was at Qatar’s request and all communication would be cut off over this newest dispute.

Four Arab nations began their boycott of Qatar on June 5. Mediation efforts so far have stalled. </s> DUBAI/DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar faces possible further sanctions by Arab states that have severed ties with Doha over allegations of links to terrorism, as a deadline to accept their demands is expected to expire on Sunday night.

 Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the demands were made to be rejected, adding that the Arab ultimatum was aimed not at tackling terrorism but at curtailing his country's sovereignty.

 State news agency QNA reported that he would inform the ruler of Kuwait, a neutral Gulf Arab country seeking to mediate in the spat, of Qatar's response on Monday.

 Sheikh Mohammed earlier told reporters in Rome that Doha remained ready to discuss the grievances of its Arab neighbors.

 "This list of demands is made to be rejected. It's not meant to be accepted or ... to be negotiated," Sheikh Mohammed said.

 "The state of Qatar instead of rejecting it as a principle, we are willing to engage in (dialogue), providing the proper conditions for further dialogue." 

 He added that no one had the right to issue an ultimatum to a sovereign country. 

 The feud erupted last month when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and travel ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being an ally of regional foe Iran, charges that Doha denies.

 The countries have threatened further sanctions against Qatar if it does not comply with their list of 13 demands presented to Doha through Kuwait 10 days ago.

 The demands include closing a Turkish military base in Qatar and shutting the Al Jazeera pan-Arab television network, which Doha also rejected. 

 Foreign ministers from the four countries will meet in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss Qatar, Egypt said on Sunday.

 "At the invitation of Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, there will be a quartet meeting of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Cairo on Wednesday July 5 to follow up on the developing situation regarding relations with Qatar," Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement.

 A State Department official said on Sunday that the United States encourages "all parties to exercise restraint to allow for productive diplomatic discussions. We are not going to get ahead of those discussions. We fully support Kuwaiti mediation." 

 Qatar's Gulf critics accuse Al Jazeera of being a platform for extremists and an agent of interference in their affairs. The network has rejected the accusations and said it will maintain its editorial independence.

 

 FRESH PENALTIES

 Gulf countries have insisted the demands were non- negotiable.

 The UAE ambassador to Russia has said that Qatar could face fresh sanctions if it does not comply with the demands. 

 Gulf states could ask their trading partners to choose between working with them or with Doha, he said in a newspaper interview last week.

 They have not specified what further sanctions they could impose on Doha, but commercial bankers in the region believe that Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini banks might receive official guidance to pull deposits and interbank loans from Qatar. 

 A more serious sanction would be to ban investors from holding Qatari assets, but authorities have given no sign of doing this.

 Qatar's stock market fell sharply on Sunday. The Qatari stock index <.QSI> sank as much as 3.1 percent in thin trade, bringing its losses to 11.9 percent since June 5, when Saudi and the other countries cut diplomatic and trade ties.

 The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, played down the chances of an escalation, saying "the alternative is not escalation but parting ways", suggesting Qatar may be forced out of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

 The Western-backed body was formed in 1981 in the wake of Iran's Islamic Revolution and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

 Speaking in Washington last week, the Qatari foreign minister said the GCC was set up to guard against external threats. 

 "When the threat is coming from inside the GCC, there is a suspicion about the sustainability of the organization," Sheikh Mohammed told reporters.

 

 "DAVID AND GOLIATH"

 Qataris appeared defiant on Sunday, with newspapers decrying a "siege" and sharing on social media a cartoon of David and Goliath to illustrate Qatar's struggle with its larger neighbors.

 A Qatari artist whose portrait of Qatar's emir has been draped from skyscrapers and affixed to car windows across the capital signed T-shirts for Qataris at a museum on Saturday.

 "As you see, the photo is now all over, it's a sign of loyalty to the emir and love for the country," he said. 

 Saudi Arabia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Abdullah bin Yahiya al-Moallemi, said on Twitter that Qatar had failed to take opportunities offered by its neighbors in the past to stop supporting terrorism.

 "Qatar had insisted on shaking the security of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and interfering in the affairs of countries in the region," Moallemi said.

 The crisis has hit travel, food imports and ratcheted up tensions in the Gulf and sown confusion among businesses, while pushing Qatar closer to Iran and Turkey.

 But it has not hit energy exports from Qatar, the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas and home to the region's biggest U.S. military base.

 The rift opened days after U.S. President Donald Trump met Arab leaders in Riyadh and called for unity against regional threats such as Iran and hardline Islamist militant groups.

 

 (Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Tom Finn, Rania El Gamal, Philip Pullella and Yeganeh Torbati; Additional reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Cairo; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler) </s> Saudi Arabia says plans to hold talks with Qatar have been suspended, shortly after the emergence of reports that a phone call between Qatar's emir and the Saudi crown prince hinted at a potential breakthrough in a major diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.

The call on Friday between Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the first official contact between Doha and Riyadh since the start of the crisis more than three months ago.

In the phone call, which was reported by state media from both countries, the two leaders expressed a willingness to discuss an end to the rift.

However, there seems to be a dispute over protocol - with some reports pointing to Qatar News Agency's (QNA) apparent failure to mention that it was Doha that had initiated the call.

READ MORE: Qatar-Gulf crisis - All the latest updates

In its report about the two leaders' call, QNA said that the phone conversation had been coordinated by US President Donald Trump.

In the phone discussion, Sheikh Tamim and Mohammed bin Salman "stressed the need to resolve this crisis" through dialogue "to ensure the unity and stability" of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said QNA.

The Qatari emir welcomed a proposal by the Saudi crown prince to assign two envoys to resolve the dispute "in a way that does not affect the sovereignty of states", the Qatari news agency added.

'Suspension of dialogue'

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar and imposed a blockade against it, accusing Doha of funding "terrorism". Qatar has vehemently rejected the allegations as "baseless".

On June 22, the group issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, limiting ties with Iran, and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country as a prerequisite to lifting the blockade. Doha rejected all the demands, denouncing them as attempts to infringe Qatar's sovereignty.

PROFILE: Who is Qatar's emir?

In what appeared to be a possible breakthrough, Saudi state news agency SPA initially issued a statement confirming Friday's phone conversation, saying that Sheikh Tamim had called Mohammed bin Salman and "expressed his desire" to discuss the demands of the four blockading countries.

"The details will be announced later after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia concludes an understanding with the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt," it added.

But SPA later issued a second statement, citing an unnamed official at the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs as saying that what QNA had published earlier in its report about the phone call was a "distortion of ... facts".

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announces the suspension of any dialogue or communication with the authority in Qatar until a clear statement is issued clarifying its position in public," the second statement added.

Trump calls GCC leaders

The latest dispute came shortly after the White House issued a statement saying that Trump had spoken separately earlier on Friday with the Qatari and Saudi leaders, as well as UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In his phone calls, Trump told the Gulf leaders that unity among Washington's Arab allies was essential to promoting regional stability and countering the threat of Iran, the statement added.

"The president also emphasised that all countries must follow through on commitments from the Riyadh Summit to defeat terrorism, cut off funding for terrorist groups, and combat extremist ideology," it said.

PROFILE: Who is the Saudi crown prince?

Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said there was "tremendous optimism" in Washington "over the fact that the White House had successfully coordinated the first official contact" between the GCC partners.

Yet, it was what happened after the phone call that "seems to be what has caused so much consternation", said Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC.

"The fact that there is an accusation by Saudi Arabia that Qatar's news agency misrepresented the facts, failing to report - in the eyes of the Saudis - that it was the emir of Qatar who initiated the phone call to Saudi Arabia's crown prince."

Mohammed Cherkaoui, a professor at George Mason University, said he was still optimistic about the call.

"I remain optimistic since there was a major turning point in the conflict itself, and I think now that we're watching the end of the escalation process that started three months ago," Cherkaoui told Al Jazeera.

"The latest news now that there is this resistance - this is normal because conflict escalation comes fast and mediation is very slow by its nature," he added.

Kuwaiti mediation

On Thursday, Trump held talks with the emir of Kuwait, who has been acting as a mediator to defuse the crisis, at the White House.

Speaking at a joint press conference after their meeting, Trump said that he supported Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah's mediation efforts, but added that if that did not manage to resolve the Gulf crisis, he would be "willing to be a mediator".

Later on Thursday, Trump also held a phone conversation with Sheikh Tamim. In the call, the Qatari emir expressed Doha's position on resolving "differences through constructive dialogue that does not affect the sovereignty of states", QNA said.

The GCC is an alliance of six Middle Eastern countries: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
Reuters reports the United States' planned meeting this spring with Gulf Arab leaders is postponed because of the ongoing dispute between Qatar and other U.S. allies in the Middle East.