Xavi Hernandez said he is open to being Qatar's coach when it hosts the 2022 World Cup and rebuffed critics by claiming he is "very proud" to be in Doha.

Qatar's foreign minister on Monday accused the "illegal" blockade against his country for trying to force it into a "state of trusteeship".

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered the reopening of the border with Qatar to hajj pilgrims, state media said Thursday, despite a major diplomatic crisis roiling the region.

With the anticipated transfer of football phenomenon Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar is hitting back at its Gulf rivals with a high-profile soft power play.

The Qatari authorities have accused Saudi Arabia of jeopardising the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca of Qatari pilgrims by refusing to guarantee their safety.

Qatar refuses to bow to Saudi-led demands to "outsource" its foreign policy to resolve the Gulf crisis, its government spokesman told AFP in an interview.

Qatar said on Wednesday that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a "disappointing surprise" in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Doha on Monday as part of a Gulf tour aimed at defusing a dispute between Turkey's ally Qatar and a bloc of Saudi-led Arab states.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began on Sunday a key visit to the Gulf region aimed at defusing the standoff around Turkey's ally Qatar, saying no one had an interest in prolonging the crisis.

Prolonging the crisis in the Gulf sparked by the isolation of Qatar is not in the interest of anyone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday as he embarked on a key visit to the region.

Egypt said it would end visas on arrival for Qatari citizens as a dispute between four Arab states and the Gulf emirate continues over allegations that Doha supports terrorism.

A top UAE official on Wednesday accused Qatari broadcast giant Al-Jazeera of anti-Semitism, discrimination and inciting religious hate, in a rebuttal to UN accusations of attacking freedom of expression.