Tillerson looks to defuse Qatar crisis on Gulf tour

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Kuwait yesterday, the key mediator between Qatar and its Arab neighbours, for talks aimed at defusing the Gulf's worst crisis in years.

Tillerson will shuttle between Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia in what is the first serious intervention by Washington in the Gulf crisis.

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The dispute has seen a Saudi-led alliance impose sanctions on Doha over its alleged ties to both Islamist extremist groups and Shia-dominated Iran.

As they met in Egypt last week, Saudi Arabia and its allies said they planned to tighten sanctions against the gas-rich emirate, after Qatar refused to comply with a list of demands.

A spokesman for Tillerson said ahead of his landing in Kuwait that it remained to be seen "if there's even a possibility of some outcomes" towards resolving the crisis.

"Right now, after Egypt, we're months away from what we think would be an actual resolution and that's very discouraging," RC Hammond told reporters.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt abruptly severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, suspending transport links with Doha and ordering all Qataris to repatriate within 14 days.

The four nations later issued a list of 13 demands to be met to lift the sanctions, including that Qatar shut down broadcaster Al-Jazeera, close a Turkish military base and downgrade diplomatic ties with Iran.

Qatar refused to meet the demands last week on the grounds they undermined its national sovereignty. It has also categorically denied having any ties to extremist groups.

Tillerson, the former chief executive of energy giant Exxon Mobil, arrives in the Gulf after a stop in Istanbul, where he discussed the Syria war to a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.

Analysts say Tillerson's success in the Gulf may be contingent on his ability to maneuver regional skepticism over conflicting stances from Washington on the crisis.

US President Donald Trump initially supported longtime US ally Saudi Arabia, but his stance was later contradicted when the US Department of State took a more neutral position.

Tillerson's impact largely depends on whether regional officials "believe that the secretary of state is fully backed by President Trump", London-based political analyst Neil Partrick said.