Qatar said the remarks, published late on Tuesday, were fake and that the news agency that ran them had been hacked in an apparent attempt to misrepresent Sheikh Tamim's views. But Gulf Arab countries including Saudi Arabia allowed their state-backed media to run them throughout the day on Wednesday, infuriating Doha and triggering a war of words in regional media.
Kuwait, which acted as a mediator during a previous Gulf dispute with Qatar, sent its top diplomat Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah to visit Sheikh Tamim on Friday. He conveyed greetings from the Kuwaiti emir to the ruler and Qatari people, state news agency KUNA said, without elaborating. A Gulf Arab official told Reuters on Thursday that Kuwait's emir had offered during a conversation with Sheikh Tamim to mediate and host talks to ensure the feud does not escalate. Kuwaiti officials were not immediately available for comment.
On Thursday Qatar's foreign minister told reporters Doha wanted to maintain "strong and brotherly relations with GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries." Rifts between Qatar and other regional states have implications far beyond their borders. Gulf countries have used their oil and gas wealth to influence events in the wider Arab world and relations can affect the political balance in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.