EMIRATES and Etihad Airlines have suspended all flights to and from Qatar as Arab nations sever diplomatic ties to the country, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups and backing Iran.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The Maldives, Yemen, Libya and the United Arab Emirates yesterday announced they would all withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The countries have also ordered their citizens out of Qatar and given Qataris abroad 14 days to return home to their peninsular nation. Qatar’s diplomats will also be ejected from their territories, with just 48 hours notice.

After the travel ban announcement, Qatar Airways quickly fired back, suspending flights to and from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain from today until further notice, according to a statement on its website. It is offering customers affected by the decision a refund on unused tickets.

The route between Doha, Qatar and Dubai is popular among business travellers and both are major transit hubs for travellers between Asia and Europe.

The decision further deepens a rift between Gulf Arab nations over Qatar’s support for Islamist groups. Qatar has denied the allegations.

A senior Saudi official has arrived in Kuwait for crisis talks, while Iran’s foreign minister

Mohammad Javad Zarif has spoken with his Qatari counterpart after earlier tweeting: “Neighbors are permanent; geography can’t be changed. Coercion is never the solution.”

Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Qatar of supporting regional terrorist groups, including some backed by Iran. Saudi Arabia views Iran as a regional rival and has long pressed Qatar to side with Gulf Arab nations against it.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the move was rooted in longstanding differences and urged the parties to resolve them.

“We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences,” Tillerson said during a stop in Sydney. “If there’s any role that we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) remain united.”

Saudi Arabia has said the move to cut ties was made for the “protection of national security” and Qatari troops would be pulled from its ongoing war in Yemen.

Bahrain blamed Qatar’s continued insistence of undermining the “security and stability” of the tiny island nation and interfering in its domestic affairs for the decision.

It also pointed to “the escalation and incitement of its media and its support to acts of terror and to financing armed groups associated with Iran to carry out subversive attacks and spread chaos in the Kingdom,” a statement published on the Bahrain News Agency said.

Bahrain said it would sever diplomatic relations to “preserve its national security”.

The Maldives foreign ministry said it joined six Arab countries in Monday’s unprecedented move “because of its firm opposition to activities that encourage terrorism and extremism”.

All the nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to the peninsula country, essentially isolating it.

Qatar responded to the news on Monday denouncing the decision as “unjustified” and accusing the Gulf states of plotting to put it under “guardianship”.

Qatar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry vowed its citizens wouldn’t be affected by the countries’ decision.

“The Qatari Government will take all necessary measures to ensure this and to thwart attempts to influence and harm the Qatari society and economy,” it said.

Qatar Airways responded by suspending all flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain until further notice.

BREAKING: @qatarairways suspends flights to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Kingdom of Bahrain. Release: https://t.co/LZrQACgHUY — Andrew Chappelle (@andrewchappelle) June 5, 2017

All Qatar Airways customers booked on affected flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be provided with alternative options, including the option of a full refund on any unused tickets and free rebooking to the nearest alternative Qatar Airways network destination.

Other major international airlines including Emirates and Etihad have announced they have suspended all flights to and from Doha from June 6 until further notice.

“As instructed by the UAE government, Emirates will suspend its flights to and from Doha ... until further notice,” a statement from the airline read.

“Emirates’ flights to and from Doha today (5 June), will operate as normal.

“Travellers bound for Doha, who are boarding their flight from airports around the Emirates network today (5 June), will be advised to make alternative arrangements.”

From 6 June, Emirates is suspending flights to and from Doha. Affected customers should visit https://t.co/p9w3QNe00D for more information. — Emirates airline (@emirates) June 5, 2017

From 6 Jun, we will suspend all flights to and from Doha until further notice. For more info visit: https://t.co/4WHx54xHR0 — Etihad Airways (@EtihadAirways) June 5, 2017

Al-Jazeera is reporting that trucks carrying food for Qatar are now lining up across the border in Saudi Arabia, unable to enter the country amid the diplomatic row.

Qatar is reliant on food trucked in from Saudi Arabia.

Doha News, a local news website in Qatar, reported some citizens and residents of the energy rich country have already started swarming grocery stores. It said some stores shelves were already emptied over fears that the crisis could see groceries run out of products.

Turkey has called for dialogue and said it was ready to help defuse the row between Qatar and Arab nations.

“It’s a development that really saddened all of us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. “There could be problems between the countries but dialogue must prevail under all circumstances,” he said, adding Ankara was ready to do its best to help resolve the dispute.

The crisis was likely to have wide-ranging consequences, not just for Qatar and its citizens but around the Middle East and for Western interests.

Qatar hosts the largest US air base in the region, which is crucial to operations against Islamic State group jihadists.

Monday’s announcement came less than a month after US President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia to cement ties with Riyadh and called for a united front among Muslim countries against extremism.

It also followed weeks of rising tensions between Doha and its neighbours, including Qatari accusations of a concerted media campaign against the country and the alleged hacking of the Qatar News Agency

Qatar alleged in late May that hackers took over the site of its state-run news agency and published what it called fake comments from its ruling Emir about Iran and Israel.

The Qatari News Agency report claimed Qatar had withdrawn its ambassadors from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE because of “tension” with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The article also quoted the Qatar Emir saying Iran was an “Islamic power” and Qatar’s relations with Israel were “good”.

Its Gulf Arab neighbours responded with anger, blocking Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.

But Qatar complained last month, ahead of Mr Trump’s visit to the Middle East, that it was the victim of a smear campaign which tried to paint it as sympathetic to terrorist groups.

In a statement it said any allegation that Qatar supported terrorism “is a lie”. The BBC reports the four nations cutting diplomatic ties say Qatar backs Islamic State, among other terror networks.

UNREST HAS GROWN SINCE TRUMP VISIT

Mr Trump visited Saudi Arabia two weeks ago for a summit with Arab leaders including Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

“We are friends, we’ve been friends now for a long time, haven’t we?” Mr Trump asked at the meeting. “Our relationship is extremely good.”

But since the summit, unrest in the region has grown.

On the weekend emails were leaked to the Huffington Post that revealed there was tension among the US partners, despite the Presidents’ recent visit to the Middle East.

The leaked emails were sent between ambassador of the UAE, Yousef Al Otaiba, and high ranking figures in the US foreign policy community including Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

In the emails Otaiba is seen pushing for the US to close down its military base in Qatar.

The anonymous leaker said they wanted to expose the UAE’s efforts to manipulate the US government.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is confident the fight against Islamic State won’t be impacted by the decision.

“I do not expect that this will have any significant impact, if any impact at all, on the unified fight against terrorism in the region or globally,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters in Sydney on Monday, following meetings with his Australian counterparts.

Qatar is also home to the sprawling al-Udeid Air Base, which is home to the US military’s Central Command and some 10,000 American troops. It wasn’t clear if the decision would affect American military operations. Central Command officials and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the decision would affect its operations.

LONG HISTORY OF CONFLICT

Qatar has long been at odds with its neighbours over its support for the Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and its close relations with Iran.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni Islamist political group outlawed by both Saudi Arabia and the UAE as it challenges the nations’ hereditary rule.

Saudi Arabia considers the Muslim Brotherhood a threat to its religious authority and said it took the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region” including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive eastern province of Qatif.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” toward Egypt and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed.”

In recent years gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia fell out with Qatar over its backing of then- Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood member.

In March 2014, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar over the rift. Eight months later, they returned their ambassadors as Qatar forced some Brotherhood members to leave the country and quieted others.

However, the 2014 crisis did not see a land and sea blockade as threatened now.

In the time since, 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.

Western officials also have accused Qatar of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

Qatar also maintains ties with Iran as it shares a massive offshore gas field with the Islamic Republic.

megan.palin@news.com.au