Four Arab nations have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, further deepening a rift between Gulf Arab nations over that country's support for Islamist groups.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced on Monday they will withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Saudi Arabia said Qatari troops would be pulled from its ongoing war in Yemen.
All the nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to the peninsular country. It wasn't immediately clear how that would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region's major long-haul carriers.
Abu Dhabi's state-owned Etihad Airways has announced it will suspend all flights to and from Doha from Tuesday morning until further notice.
The last flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha will depart at 2:45am on Tuesday (local time), the airline's spokesman said in an email.
Etihad said their flights on Monday will operate as normal.
Qatari officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
The decision comes after 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.
Its Gulf Arab neighbours responded with anger, blocking Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.
Reuters
