Qatar’s perseverance and steadfast policy of not retaliating against the illegal siege it is undergoing seems to have worked wonders and given it support of the American government.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on his first official visit, to Saudi Arabia, has called for unity in the Gulf region, reported Al Jazeera.

Speaking at a joint Press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir, Pompeo said, “Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it.”

New York Times reported that Pompeo arrived in Riyadh with a clear message: Enough is enough.

Patience with what is viewed in Washington as a petulant spat within the Gulf Cooperation Council has worn thin, and Pompeo told the Saudi Foreign Minister that the dispute needs to end, the newspaper wrote quoting a senior State Department official who was not authorised to be named.

In advance of Pompeo’s visit, US officials had told reporters that the US secretary of state would urge the Saudi Foreign Minister, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and King Salman to resolve the Gulf crisis in a series of meetings, reported Gulf Times.

The officials said Pompeo will also press the Saudis on contributing more to stabilisation efforts in Syria recently liberated from the Islamic State group, reported The Peninsula.

The US fears that the GCC split gives Iran ‘room to play’ and hampers cooperation on a wide array of other issues, including combatting violent extremism from the Islamic State and other groups.

Addressing the rift between Qatar and its neighbours, Pompeo told reporters after leaving Riyadh: “We’re hopeful that they’ll, in their own way, figure out how to remove the dispute between them.”

Pompeo met earlier with Saudi King Salman for about 15 minutes before heading directly to Israel, for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.