UAE to close all land, sea, air routes to Qatar within 24 hours

The UAE announced this morning that it supports the statements of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Yemen and now Maldives on Qatar and it will close all air and sea routes within 24 hours to the Arab nation.

Qatari diplomats in the UAE have 48 hours to leave.

Arabian Business reports that this is the region's most serious diplomatic crisis in years, Qatar's Gulf neighbours Riyadh, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt all announced they were severing ties with gas-rich Qatar.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, Riyadh has cut diplomatic relations and closed borders with its neighbour to "protect its national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism".

It still not clear how this would affect tourism to Qatar from the GCC.

The official stats indicate that there was a 47. 2% increase in number of visitors from GCC countries. As many as 144, 814 people from GCC countries visited Qatar in April 2017 while 98, 401 visitors had come to Qatar in April 2016, which is a 47.2% increase on YoY basis.

Etihad Airways has confirmed it will suspend all Doha flights from tomorrow morning (June 6).