ahrain has accused Qatar of a “military escalation” in the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf by allowing a growing force of Turkish soldiers to enter its territory.
A coalition of Arab states led by Saudi has been blockading Qatar for three weeks and was angered by footage of Turkish light tanks rolling through the streets of Doha over the weekend.
Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, said the move was a provocation that would only worsen the standoff between the Gulf neighbours.
“The disagreement with Qatar is a political and security dispute and has never been military. But the deployment of foreign troops with their armoured vehicles is a military escalation for which Qatar will bear the consequences,” he said.
Turkey has a little more than 100 troops in Qatar now but in a show of support its parliament rushed through legislation to allow for larger deployments after the blockade began.
The number of troops may eventually rise to around 1,000 and Turkey and Qatar will carry out a joint military exercise in the coming weeks, according to the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper.
Qatar’s neighbours have viewed the small Turkish military base with suspicion. Among 13 demands they delivered to Qatar last week was a call for the Turkish base to be shut down.
Turkey’s government said it would not close down the base and the diplomatic crisis has only brought Turkey and Qatar closer together.
Qatar has also found support from Iran, which has been delivering food to the small Gulf country and allowed Qatari aircraft to use its airspace.
Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, voiced his support for Qatar, saying “the siege of Qatar is unacceptable to us”.
Kuwait has been acting as an intermediary between Qatar and the Saudi-led coalition but the US is expected to ultimately play a major role in negotiating an end to the crisis.
Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, is in Washington and will meet Tuesday with Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state.
While Donald Trump has applauded the blockade of Qatar, Mr Tillerson has called for a “lowering of rhetoric”.
The US military, which has 10,000 troops deployed in Qatar, is also eager to see a diplomatic resolution to the standoff between America’s Gulf allies.
Meanwhile, a leading Republican senator said he would block US arms sales to Gulf countries until there was a resolution to the crisis.
Bob Corker, chair of the Senate foreign affairs committee, said: “I will withhold consent on future arms sales to [the Gulf Cooperation Council] until a path to resolve the dispute is established.”
