Story highlights Rex Tillerson makes an unexpected return to Qatar following meetings in Jeddah

US Secretary of State made an overnight stop in Kuwait

(CNN) US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Doha for home on Thursday after an unexpected return to Qatar, extending his tour of the crisis-embroiled Gulf as the standoff between the gas-rich nation and the Saudi-led quartet showed no signs of abating.

Tillerson met with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, a day after a high-level meeting in Jeddah with foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The quartet has accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, a charge Doha denies.

Tillerson, speaking to reporters on the plane traveling back to the United States, said his diplomatic work to resolve a standoff may have opened a window for direct talks, but warned that resolving the dispute "may take quite a while."

"In my view, there's a changed sense of willingness to at least be open to talking to one another and that was not the case before I came," he said, adding that the "final and ultimate resolution may take quite a while" because of the complexity of the issues.

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