Yemen Severs Diplomatic Relations With Qatar

"Yemeni government cuts diplomatic ties with Qatar," the Al-Arabiya broadcaster said in its breaking news dispatch. "Yemeni gov't also confirms Arab coalition suspends Qatar's participation."

Sanaa accuses Doha of supporting Shiite Houthi rebels and other radical groups in the country.

"This takes place after Qatar's actions and its links with the groups behind the coup, as well as its support for extremist groups in Yemen, became clear," the government statement published by Yemen's Saba news agency reads.

On June 5, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic relations with Qatar citing security concerns over Doha's alleged support for terrorism.

The Sauid-led coalition has been fighting Houthis in Yemen since spring 2015.

Libya has made a similar step earlier in the day.

In response, the Qatari Foreign Ministry rejected the Arab states' accusations and expressed regret over their move, saying that the measures are "unjustified."

The row between the countries intensified one week after the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, when the Qatari news agency posted a speech supporting the building relations with Iran on behalf of the country's emir. Afterwards, the official representative of the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the agency's site was hacked and the emir's speech was published by hackers and had nothing to do with the Qatari leader.

However the Arab states considered this refutation to be unconvincing and continued to insist that the words about the normalization of relations with Iran really belonged to the emir. The relations between Iran and the Arab states of Persian Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia, are strained due to the differences of positions on a range of regional conflicts.