U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday ended his four-day Gulf tour failing to end the month-long standoff between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, which raises new doubts about the U.S. leadership in the Trump era.
No breakthrough was announced before Tillerson headed home from Doha.
In a surprise move, the top U.S. diplomat returned to Kuwait on Wednesday and to Qatar on Thursday, after meeting with the foreign ministers of the anti-Qatar Arab quartet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Analysts said that the only major result of Tillerson' s Gulf tour is the signing of a deal with Qatar on combating terrorism financing.
But as the Gulf crisis showed no signs of easing after Tillerson's visit, doubts were raised about the U.S. global leadership under the administration of President Donald Trump.
LIMITED RESULTS FROM TILLERSON'S VISIT
Tillerson started his Gulf tour on Monday in Kuwait, which has been playing as a mediator in the Qatari crisis, before heading to Qatar on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt on June 5 severed their diplomatic ties with Doha and imposed a blockade on the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs.
Doha has denied all the charges, while rejecting an ultimatum issued by the four Arab countries to accept their list of 13 demands as preconditions for ending the dispute.
To tackle one of the core accusations against Doha, Tillerson signed in Doha Tuesday a memorandum of understanding on combating terrorism financing.
Tillerson said the deal "reinvigorates the spirit of the Riyadh summit," referring to the meeting held by Trump and Arab leaders in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in May. The summit aimed at unifying the Muslim world to fight terrorism via measures including cutting off terrorism funding.
But Tillerson's statement that Qatar's position in the standoff was "reasonable" raised eyebrows in the anti-Qatari camp.
In response, the Saudi-led bloc issued a joint statement, saying that the U.S.-Qatar deal is insufficient and they will keep close watch on Qatar's future behavior.
As expected, no tangible results came out of the Wednesday meeting between Tillerson and the foreign ministers of the Saudi-led alliance in Jeddah.
Abdulrahman al-Rashed, former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, blamed Tillerson's pro-Qatar position for damaging the chance of ending the stalemate.
"What increased suspicion is how he (Tillerson) rushed to concluding that Qatar's demands are reasonable before he even listened to the other involved parties," al-Rashed wrote in an opinion piece published on the Al Arabiya website.
He said Tillerson must realize that his pro-Qatar stance "complicates the problem, which is already complicated, and prolongs the crisis."
