KUWAIT, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. special envoys said Monday the United States would redouble its efforts to end the standoff in the Gulf, the official news agency KUNA reported.
U.S. Deputy Assistant State Secretary for Arab Gulf Affairs Tim Lenderking and former U.S. head of Central Command Anthony Zinni made the remarks during their meeting with Kuwait's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah.
Both U.S. envoys reiterated the U.S. support of Kuwait's efforts to resolve the ongoing feud between Qatar and another four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia.
They said the U.S. would double its efforts in pursuit of the joint goal, the report quoted a Kuwaiti official statement as saying.
The two sides also discussed discussed the U.S.-Kuwait bilateral relations along with regional and international developments.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting "terrorism" and interfering in their internal affairs. Qatar has strongly rejected the charges.
Lenderking and Zinni are in the Gulf region this week "to engage with the parties involved and support Kuwait's mediation efforts," a U.S. State Department official said earlier.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose own trip to the Gulf in July resulted in a U.S.-Qatari accord on combating terrorism funding, without achieving a major breakthrough to end the crisis, announced Zinni and Lenderking's mission last week.
Tillerson said that Zinni's presence would help maintain a constant U.S. pressure on the parties, adding the U.S. is "committed to seeing this disagreement resolved, restore Gulf unity, because it's important to the long-term effort to defeat terrorism in the region."
The diplomatic rift, the worst dispute in decades among the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states, erupted days after U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May.
The U.S. has vital interests in maintaining unity among the Gulf states. While Saudi is a major ally for the U.S. as well as the leading buyer of U.S. weapons in the region, Qatar hosts the region's largest U.S. military base. The U.S. Navy's 5th fleet is based in Bahrain, while U.S. surveillance planes fly from the UAE.
