Sputnik - Thousands of ordinary families have fallen victims to an ongoing spat between a group of Gulf states and Qatar, the human rights group Amnesty International charged in a press release on Friday.





WASHINGTON (Sputnik)�� Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are toying with�the lives of�thousands of�Persian Gulf residents in�a dispute with�Qatar, splitting up�families and destroying peoples� livelihoods and education, the release reads.
"For potentially thousands of�people across�the Gulf, the effect of�the steps imposed in�the wake of�this political dispute is suffering, heartbreak and fear," Deputy Director of�Amnesty International�s Global Issues Program James Lynch stated in�the release. "These drastic measures are already having a brutal effect, splitting children from�parents and husbands from�wives."


On 5 June Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE ordered Qatari nationals to�leave their territories within�14 days and announced that all of�their nationals had to�return from�Qatar, threatening penalties for�anyone who did comply, the release explained.


The release cited Qatar�s National Human Rights Committee�s estimate of�more than�11,000 nationals of�the three nations living in�Qatar. Many Qataris also live in�Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Gulf Arab nations, with�the exception of�Kuwait and Oman, acted because of�Qatar�s longtime support for�militant Islamist groups such as�Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, as�well as�the nation�s ties with�regional rival Iran.

Earlier on�Friday, President Donald Trump also urged Qatar to�crack down�on extremism, claiming the nation had historically funded extremists at�a high level.

The dispute represents a dilemma for�the United States since�Qatar hosts the largest US Air Force base in�the region while Bahrain hosts the headquarters for�the US Navy�s Fifth Fleet.

Shortly before�Trump spoke, Secretary of�State Rex Tillerson warned that the dispute was hurting the US-led war against�the Islamic State terror group (banned in�Russia) and urged nations to�work with�Kuwait as�a mediator to�resolve tensions.