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Qatar has been given an extra 48 hours to comply with a list of demands issued by Arab nations that have cut ties to the country, including that news network Al Jazeera be shut down.
It's the worst diplomatic crisis in the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and has seen Qataris expelled from Gulf countries and transport links with the country cut.
What are the demands?
They include:
- Limiting diplomatic ties to Iran
- Severing ties to all "terrorist organisations", including the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanon's Hezbollah
- Expelling Turkish troops now stationed in Qatar
- Paying reparations of an unknown amount and submitting to auditing
As well, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates want Qatar's international news network Al Jazeera to be shut down.
Qatar has previously rejected the demands as violations of its sovereignty.
Why is Al Jazeera under siege?
Al Jazeera is accused of being a platform for extremists and interfering in the affairs of Arab nations, but the television network denies these claims.
It has called the demand to shut it down "nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region".
"We assert our right to practice our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority," the network said last month.
"We demand that governments respect the freedom of media to allow journalists to continue to do their jobs free of intimidation, threats, and fearmongering."
You might know Al Jazeera as the former employer of Australian foreign correspondent Peter Greste, who was imprisoned while on assignment in Egypt in 2013.
What happens if the demands aren't met?
We don't know what further actions could be taken.
The Arab nations could look at financial sanctions, though Qatari investments around the world include Harrods department store in London, Volkswagen in Germany and the company owning New York's Empire State Building.
They could attempt to block Qatari shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG), though that could spark hostilities.
Qatar has yet to retaliate, but it could shut down an undersea natural gas pipeline running to the United Arab Emirates, a crucial power source for a desert nation that relies on desalination plants for water and air conditioners to cope with the scorching heat.
How did this crisis come about?
The Arab nations cut ties to Qatar on June 5. They also stopped Qatar Airways flights from using their airspace, closed off the small country's sole land border with Saudi Arabia, and blocked its ships from using their ports.
They say Qatar has been supporting extremist groups in the region, but the country denies these charges.
The four nations have also pointed to Qatar's close relationship with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore gas field that provides the peninsular nation its wealth.
The United States has sought to end the crisis, but US President Donald Trump has made comments seemingly supporting the isolation of Qatar, complicating those efforts.
Qatar is home to about 10,000 American troops who are part of the campaign against Islamic State and the war in Afghanistan.
How big and wealthy is Qatar?
It's a very small country which juts out like a thumb on the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf.
But it has the highest per-capita income in the world due to its natural gas reserves, the third-largest on the planet after Russia and Iran.
Just over 10 percent of its 2.2 million people are Qataris, with the rest foreign workers. Its people follow an ultraconservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism, though unlike neighbouring Saudi Arabia, women can drive and foreigners can drink alcohol.
Qatar is scheduled to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The foreign ministers of the four Arab nations are scheduled to meet in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
ABC/wires
Topics: world-politics, journalism, information-and-communication, qatar, saudi-arabia
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