WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is cancelling his scheduled trip to an Organization of American States meeting in Mexico next week. Instead, he’ll stay in the U.S. to work on resolving the crisis between Qatar and its neighbors.
A day after announcing Tillerson would lead the U.S. delegation to the OAS General Assembly in Cancun, the State Department said Friday that Tillerson’s deputy, John Sullivan, will go in his place.
Spokeswoman Heather Nauert says Tillerson will stay to work the phones to try to persuade Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to settle their differences.
Simmering tensions between the U.S. partners boiled over this month when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Egypt, severed ties with Qatar over its alleged support for extremism.