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(CNN)Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates have broken diplomatic relations with Qatar, rattling a powerful 36-year-old Gulf states union, over what they say is the country’s support of terrorism. Egypt has also cut off relations with the tiny Gulf state.

A statement on Saudi Arabia’s state news agency announced the move Monday morning, in order to "protect national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism." All ports of entry between the two countries would be closed, according to the statement.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar form a regional alliance known as the Gulf Cooperation Council. The union is viewed as one of the most influential in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have broken diplomatic relations with Qatar.

Oman remains the only GCC member to maintain ties with Qatar.

Simmering tensions

Late last month, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt blocked several Qatari media outlets, including state-funded Al Jazeera, over comments allegedly made by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Hamad Al Thani. Al Thani reportedly hailed Iran as an "Islamic power" and criticized US President Donald Trump’s policy towards Tehran.

The Emir’s comments appeared on Qatar’s official news agency, but Qatar claimed that the website was "hacked," the report fabricated by the culprits.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are at odds over a number of regional issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and what Saudis see as Tehran’s growing influence in the kingdom’s sphere of influence -- especially in Syria, Lebanon and neighboring Yemen.

"There are two competing theories," Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations says about the origin of the spat.

"One is that Saudi Arabia felt emboldened after Donald Trump’s visit, and Trump’s administration has had a strong stance on Iran, which is backed by Qatar.

"Another theory is that this is a product of month’s tension, all brought to a breaking point after the Qatar news agency hacking story."
Trump recently visited the Saudi capital and addressed 55 Muslim leaders in a landmark speech urging them to double down on efforts to combat terrorism.

Qataris given 2 week notice to leave UAE

In its statement announcing its severing of ties with Qatar, the UAE cited Qatar’s "ongoing policies that rattle the security and sovereignty of the region as well as its manipulation and evasion of its commitments and treaties."
Qatari nationals are to be banned from entering the UAE, and Qatari residents of the country have been given two-week notice to leave the leave the country.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry issued a statement Monday saying it was suspending diplomatic relations "in order to preserve its national security."

Qatari diplomats had 48 hours to leave the kingdom, and airspace and ports between the countries would be closed within 24 hours of Bahrain’s announcement, it said.

Bahrain said its decision was based on what it said was Qatar’s destabilizing actions.

"Based on the insistence of the State of Qatar to continue to destabilize the security and stability of the Kingdom of Bahrain, to interfere in its affairs, to continue the escalation and incitement of the media, and supporting armed terrorist activities, and financing groups associated with Iran to subvert and spread chaos in Bahrain in flagrant violation of all agreements and the principles of international law without regard to values, law, morals, consideration of the principles of good neighborliness, or commitment to the constants of Gulf relations, and the denial of all previous commitments."

Qatar ’fake news’ spat divides Arab media

The Saudi Press Agency said the Saudi government would also reach out to its allies "and start the immediate legal procedures for understanding with fraternal and friendly countries and international companies to implement the same procedure as soon as possible for all means of transport to and from the State of Qatar, for reasons related to Saudi national security."

In a statement, Egypt said that Qatar had taken an "anti-Egyptian course" and that Cairo had been unable to dissuade it from supporting terrorism.

US weighs in

Speaking from Australia, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the respective countries to work out their differences, and offered US assistance to do so.

"We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences. And if there is any role that we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the GCC remain unified," Tillerson said.

Tillerson and US Defense Secretary James Mattis are in Sydney for talks with their Australian counterparts.

After reassuring that the conflict would not impact the fight against ISIS and the pledge made in Riyadh last month, Mattis pivoted to Iran, blaming them for discord in the area. "Iran’s actions speak louder than anyone’s words," Mattis said.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen cut ties with Qatar

Qatari diplomats ejected and land, air and sea traffic routes cut off in row over terror and regional stabilitySaudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terror, in the Gulf Arab region’s most serious diplomatic crisis in years.

The countries said they planned to break off all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar, and eject its diplomats from their territories. Qatar was also expelled from a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Yemen’s internationally backed government, which no longer holds its capital and large portions of the country, also cut relations with Qatar, as did the government based in eastern Libya.

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The coordinated move dramatically escalates a dispute over Qatar’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest Islamist movement, and adds accusations that Doha even backs the agenda of regional arch-rival Iran.

Saudi Arabia 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-Qaida, Islamic State 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”.

The tiny island nation of Bahrain blamed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” for its decision.
Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry said the measures were unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions. “The State of Qatar has been subjected to a campaign of lies that have reached the point of complete fabrication,” a statement said. “It reveals a hidden plan to undermine the State of Qatar.”
The escalation of a long-simmering row had an immediate effect on air travel in the region: Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, said it was suspending all flights to Saudi Arabia; 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.
In late May Qatar alleged 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. Qatar’s Gulf Arab neighbours responded with anger, blocking Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.

A senior Iranian official said the decision to sever ties with Qatar would not help end the crisis in the Middle East. Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted: “The era of cutting diplomatic ties and closing borders is over … it is not a way to resolve crisis. These countries have no other option but to start regional dialogue.”
Qatar is home to the sprawling al-Udeid airbase, which houses the US military’s central command and 10,000 American troops. It was not clear if the decision would affect US military operations. Central command officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar has long faced criticism from its Arab neighbours over its support of Islamists. The chief worry among them is the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist political group outlawed by both Saudi Arabia and the UAE as it challenges the nations’ hereditary rule.

Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia fell out with Qatar over its backing of then-Egyptian president Mohamed 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-Qaida’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

The row comes only two weeks after Donald Trump visited the Middle East to seal major defence contracts with Saudi Arabia worth $110bn, set up an anti-extremist institute in Riyadh and urge the Gulf states to build an alliance against Iran.

Although it is unlikely Saudi Arabia would have instigated this action against Qatar without first informing the US, it is possible that Trump did not give the green light to such drastic steps.