Manama: Bahrain’s foreign minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa has dismissed claims that decisions by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to sever ties with Qatar and to close their airspace and seaports to Doha were a blockade.

“The allegations of a blockade and starvation are null and void and lack credibility,” Shaikh Khalid posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday.

Lawyers define “blockade” as means to cut or close off a nation to the outside world.

Under a blockade, people are totally isolated and have no access to the international community.

“The measures taken are sovereign steps to protect our security and the safety of our countries,” the Bahraini minister added.

He insisted that the measures took into account family relations between the Gulf people.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir denied claims being circulated on behalf of Qatar that a blockade had been imposed around it.

“There is no blockade of Qatar. Qatar is free to go. The ports are open, the airports are open,” Al Jubeir said in Washington after a meeting with US secretary of state Rex Tillerson. “What we have done is we have denied them use of our airspace, and this is our sovereign right. The limitation on the use of Saudi airspace is only limited to Qatar Airways or Qatari-owned aircraft, not anybody else.”

Al Jubeir explained the situation further by insisting that Qatar’s seaports were open.

“There is no blockade on them. Qatar can move goods in and out whenever they want. They just cannot use our territorial waters,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz discussed the Qatar crisis, with Putin warning that tension with Qatar could make resolving the Syria conflict more difficult despite the fact that Russia and Qatar are on opposing sides of the conflict.

Their talks “touched on the aggravated situation around Qatar, which unfortunately does not help consolidate joint efforts in resolving the conflict in Syria and fighting the terrorist threat”, a Kremlin statement said.

Iran called for a permanent mechanism in the Gulf to resolve issues such as the current crisis.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking in Norway, said it was “absolutely imperative” to resolve the row through dialogue and to “establish a permanent mechanism for consultation, conversation and conflict resolution in our region.”

He said this could be along the lines of the 1975 Helsinki accords signed during the Cold War to reduce tensions between Western and Communist nations.

Gulf and Arab nations have cited Qatar’s support of Iran-backed groups as one of the key greviances against it.

Gulf states regularly accuse Iran of fomenting sectarianism and instability in the region.

During a summit hosted by Riyadh in May, US President Donald Trump met with Muslim leaders from around the world and called for international isolation of Iran, which he accused of fuelling “sectarian conflict and terror”.

Meanwhile, Washington’s envoy to Doha tweeted on Tuesday that she was leaving her post.

Dana Shell Smith did not say why she was stepping down but officials in Washington said she had made a personal decision to leave earlier this year after a normal three-year tenure.

Smith was appointed ambassador by US President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in 2014.