US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday renewed calls for a resolution to a blockade of Qatar by four other Arab nations, all of them America’s partners in the Middle East.

“It’s not in the best interest of the region, it’s not in the best interest of the world,” Pompeo told reporters at a news conference with Kuwait’s foreign minister. “We need the Gulf countries working together on the complex set of challenges that face each of them.”

Pompeo lauded mediation efforts in the crisis by Kuwait’s Emir and said the United States would do whatever it could to assist.

“We are working to help those countries find a set of common ground,” he said. “We all have the same set of threats, the threats from al-Qaida and from ISIS, the threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran. We all are working diligently to find a path forward so that the rift between those countries can be resolved.”

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began a blockade of Qatar in June 2017.

Pompeo was in Kuwait on the first leg of a Mideast tour that will take him next to Israel and Lebanon.

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