UAE minister foresees 'long estrangement' with Qatar

There will be no swift resolution to a crisis involving Qatar and four Arab countries, the UAE's foreign minister said on Friday, despite efforts from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to end the rift this week.

"We are headed for a long estrangement... we are very far from a political solution involving a change in Qatar's course, and in light of that nothing will change and we have to look for a different format of relations," Anwar al-Gargash said on his official Twitter account.

Gargash's statement suggested that recent attempts by Tillerson to resolve the crisis have had no breakthrough.

Tillerson spent three days touring Gulf countries and left on Thursday.

While in Doha, Tillerson signed an accord with Qatar regarding terror financing in a bid to help alleviate tensions.

The states opposing Qatar, however, said the move fell far short of the aims of the official list of demands put forward to Doha.

On Thursday, the State Department said that Tillerson hoped the disputing parties would soon be ready for face-to-face negotiations.

"Based on his meetings, the secretary believes that getting the parties to talk directly to one another would be an important next step," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.

"We hope the parties will agree to do so," she added.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait this week to speak to Gulf leaders. 

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain issued a 13-point ultimatum to Qatar last month, which included demands to close a Turkish military base, shuttering al-Jazeera, and ending relations with Iran.

Qatar called the demands "unreasonable" and said it infringed on its "sovereignty".