Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday a resolution to a bitter dispute with Qatar seemed "within reach" after Kuwait announced progress toward ending a row that Washington says has hampered a united Arab Gulf front against Iran.

The United States and Kuwait have worked to end the dispute, during which Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt have imposed a diplomatic, trade, and travel embargo on Qatar since mid-2017.

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US President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner had held talks in Doha on Wednesday following a visit to Saudi Arabia.

"We have made significant progress in the last few days thanks to the continuing efforts of Kuwait but also thanks to strong support from President Trump," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a Rome conference via videolink.

"We hope this progress can lead to a final agreement which looks within reach and I can say I am somewhat optimistic that we are close to finalizing an agreement between all the nations in the dispute."

A source in Washington familiar with the discussions said a tentative deal had been reached by the parties that could be signed in a few weeks.

"They're working towards taking what's an agreement in principle and getting it actually signed," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Friday welcomed the developments, state-run news agency KUNA said.

"This agreement has shown that all concerned parties are keen on retaining the pan-Gulf and the pan-Arab solidarity, unity, and stability," he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking remotely at a Bahrain summit on Friday, said the United States was "very hopeful" that the dispute would be resolved.

All countries involved are US allies. Qatar hosts the region's largest US military base, Bahrain is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE host US troops as well.

Washington has been pushing for reopening Gulf airspace for Qatari aircraft as a first step, diplomats and sources have said.

The boycotting nations accuse Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the charges and says the embargo aims to undermine its sovereignty.

'An imperative step'

Kuwait's foreign minister, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Sabah, said earlier on Friday that fruitful discussion had taken place recently "in which all sides expressed their keenness for Gulf and Arab unity and stability, and to reach a final agreement that realizes lasting solidarity."

In a Twitter post, Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, welcomed the Kuwaiti statement as "an imperative step" toward resolving the rift.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is encouraged by the Kuwait statement and hopes all countries involved work together to formally resolve their differences, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif in a Twitter post said he hoped Gulf reconciliation "contributes to stability and political and economic development for all peoples of our region."

The Qatari minister earlier told the Rome conference that Doha hoped "things will move in the right direction" but that any resolution should be based on mutual respect for sovereignty, including in foreign policy.

The boycotting nations had set 13 demands, ranging from closing the Al Jazeera broadcaster and shuttering a Turkish base to cutting links to the Muslim Brotherhood and downgrading ties with Iran, which shares a significant gas field with Qatar.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Neom, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, a senior official has confirmed to Israel Hayom. The official added that Mossad Director Yossi Cohen was at the meeting as well.

The senior officials discussed Jerusalem-Riyadh ties and possibly the signing of a peace deal in the near future.

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Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, who serves as defense minister and prime minister-designate was not appraised of the meeting, nor was Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, the official said. The two were also excluded from the talks with the United Arab Emirates.

Riyadh has yet to officially comments on the reports of the meeting, which was arranged by US Special Representative for Iran Elliot Abrams.

The top Israeli official noted that while Riyadh had initially acquiesced to the have the fact that the meeting took place leaked to the media, the latter broke the story sooner than planned.

The plan was to leak some of the details of the meeting over several hours, but once Israeli media reported the Netanyahu had abruptly canceled a planned cabinet meeting, as well as images of the presumed flight path of the plane that took him and Cohen to Neom, the information was made public in its entiretly.

Earlier Monday, Israeli intelligence website Intellitimes reported that a plane had departed from Israel on Sunday afternoon for Neom, Saudi Arabia, where it remained for several hours on the tarmac before returning home. Although not Israeli, the plane had at one point been designated to fly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the signing ceremony of the peace accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Washington in October.

Both US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have in recent weeks said additional Arab states were interested in signing accords with Israel. On Sunday, Pompeo said other Arab states could join the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia for its part has declared it would only enter into an accord with Israel once Jerusalem had signed a deal with the Palestinians.

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Pompeo is on a Middle East tour following a US-brokered accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations announced on Aug. 13.

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"If we can help facilitate normalization with Bahrain we're ready," the official said.

On arrival in Bahrain, Pompeo said it was vital to seize the momentum of the deal. On this trip he has visited Jerusalem, Sudan, Bahrain, the UAE, and will head to Oman on Thursday.

Israel and the United States have said they are pushing more Arab countries to follow the UAE's path. Israel's intelligence minister has mentioned Bahrain as a possible candidate.

"I think that UAE's decision creates a climate that makes it easier for another country to follow, and more countries after that," the state department official on the tour said.

Bahrain welcomed the UAE-Israel accord soon after it was announced and said it raised the chances of peace.

The small island state of Bahrain houses the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, the US Naval Forces Central Command, and a British naval support facility. The International Maritime Security Construct, formed in 2019 to protect commercial shipping in the Gulf after a series of tanker attacks, is also based in Bahrain.

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Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said he welcomed US efforts towards the Israel-UAE accord, noting "the importance of redoubling efforts to realize a just solution which utilizes peace as a strategic option to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict", state news agency BNA said.

On Twitter after meeting the crown prince, Pompeo said they discussed regional peace and stability and Gulf unity.

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Pompeo and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan spoke about support for "de-escalation and a lasting ceasefire in Libya, Gulf unity and countering Iran's malign influence in the region," the state department said.

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"Excited to arrive in the United Arab Emirates and congratulate the Emirati people on the historic Abraham Accords – the most significant step toward peace in the Middle East in over 25 years. Hopeful we will  build on this momentum towards regional peace," Pompeo said on Twitter.

The United States, UAE, and Israel see Iran as the main threat to the Middle East, though the UAE has said forging diplomatic ties with Israel was not directed at Tehran.

The UAE, along with Russia and Egypt, supports the eastern-based Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar which is fighting Libya's internationally recognized government for control of the war-torn North African state.

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Pompeo visited Jerusalem, Sudan, and Bahrain before traveling to the UAE. He then took off back to Bahrain.

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"The purpose of the US secretary of state's visit to Sudan is to encourage the transition to democratic rule and discuss relations with Israel," the report said.

It is believed that Khartoum is interested in striking a peace deal with Jerusalem in order to be removed from the list of countries that the US designates as state-sponsors of terrorism.

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To trigger a return of the sanctions, the United States will submit a complaint to the 15-member UN Security Council about Iran's non-compliance with the nuclear deal, even though Washington quit the accord in 2018.

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"This assistance will provide critical shelter, essential healthcare, emergency food assistance, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services across Iraq. It will also improve access to civil documentation and legal services, the capacity of health care facilities, and increase access to education and livelihood opportunities," Pompeo said in a statement.

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Trump's comments came amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following the killing of Mag. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. Iran has vowed to retaliate, and Iraq's parliament responded by voting Sunday to oust US troops based in the country.

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Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he returned to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions.

"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," Trump said.

The targeted killing of Soleimani sparked outrage in the Middle East, including in Iraq, where more than 5,000 American troops are still on the ground 17 years after the US invasion. Iraq's parliament voted Sunday in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for the expulsion of the American forces.

Trump said the US wouldn't leave without being paid for its military investments in Iraq over the years – then said if the troops do have to withdraw, he would hit Baghdad with economic penalties.

"We will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame," he said. "If there's any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq."

He added: "We're not leaving until they pay us back for it."

The administration has scrambled to contend with the backlash to the killing of Soleimani. Though he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, the targeted American strike marked a stark escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US military may well strike more Iranian leaders if the Islamic republic retaliates. He tiptoed around questions about Trump's threat to attack Iranian cultural sites, a military action that likely would be illegal under the laws of armed conflict and the UN charter.

Pompeo said only that any US military strikes inside Iran would be legal.

"We'll behave inside the system," Pompeo said. "We always have and we always will."

Trump's warnings rattled some administration officials. One US national security official said the president had caught many in the administration off guard and prompted internal calls for others in the government, including Pompeo, to clarify the matter. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the issue, said clarification was necessary to affirm that the US military would not intentionally commit war crimes.

Oona Hathaway, an international law professor at Yale and a former national security law official in the Defense Department's legal office, said Trump's threat amounted to "a pretty clear promise of commission of a war crime."

The president's threats to Iran did little to quell Tehran's furor over the death of Soleimani. Iranian state television reported that the country would no longer abide by any limits of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the United States and other world powers. Trump withdrew the US from the deal in 2018 and stepped up economic sanctions on Tehran – actions that accelerated a cycle of hostilities leading to the last week's killing.

The administration also pushed back Sunday on questions about the legality of the strike on Soleimani. Pompeo said the administration would have been "culpably negligent" in its duty to protect the United States if it had not killed him. He did not provide evidence for his previous claims that Soleimani was plotting imminent attacks on Americans. Instead of arguing that an attack had been imminent, he said it was inevitable.

"We watched him continue to actively build out for what was going to be a significant attack – that's what we believed – and we made the right decision," he said, adding later: "We continue to prepare for whatever it is the Iranian regime may put in front of us within the next 10 minutes, within the next 10 days, and within the next 10 weeks."

Congressional Democrats were skeptical.

"I really worry that the actions the president took will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East. He promised we wouldn't have that," said Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate's top Democrat.

Schumer said Trump lacks the authority to engage militarily with Iran and Congress needs a new war powers resolution "to be a check on this president." To which Pompeo said: "We have all the authority we need to do what we've done to date."

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), said the administration violated the Constitution by not consulting with Congress in advance.

"It's also important because one, you potentially get members of Congress to buy in ahead of time, and two, they may ask that hard question that's not asked in an insular group," Warner said.

Congressional staffs got their first briefings from the administration on Friday, and members were expected to be briefed this week.

But Trump made clear Sunday that he saw little reason to give Congress advanced warning if he orders the military to carry out further actions against Iran.

"These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any US person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner," he wrote on Twitter. "Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!"

Democrats in Congress have complained that Trump's order to kill Soleimani took place without first consulting with or informing top lawmakers, noting that Congress still holds sole power to declare war. Trump did meet the 48-hour deadline required by the War Powers Act to notify Congress of the deadly drone strike, though the document provided Saturday was entirely classified and no public version was released.

Moving swiftly to rebuke Trump for not consulting with Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Sunday the House would introduce and vote this week on a war powers resolution to limit the president's military actions regarding Iran. In a letter to House Democrats, Pelosi called the airstrike "provocative and disproportionate" and that it had "endangered our service members, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran." A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate.

Some of the Democrats running to challenge Trump in November questioned whether he had a long-term plan for the Mideast.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump was ill-prepared for the repercussions of the strike on Soleimani and had alienated allies by not alerting them of the plans. "I think we need a president who could provide steady leadership on Day One," he said. "The next president is going to inherit a divided nation and a world in disarray."

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. said: "When you're dealing with the Middle East, you need to think about the next and the next and the next move. This is not checkers. And I'm not sure any of us really believe that this president and the people around him″ are "really going through all of the consequences of what could happen next."

Pompeo appeared on ABC's This Week, CNN's State of the Union, NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, and Fox News Channel's Sunday Morning Futures. Schumer was on ABC, Warner and Warren were on NBC, Petraeus was on CBS, Buttigieg was on CNN, and Graham was on Fox News Channel.

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"Benjamin Netanyahu spoke today with US Secretary of State Pompeo and commended him on the important US action against Iran and its proxies in the region," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

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The US military carried out airstrikes on Sunday against the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia group in response to the killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, officials said. The airstrikes apparently killed more than 20 people.

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"When politicians want to absolve themselves of blame they always make up an imaginary enemy," Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a press conference.

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"This is the American tradition – creating enemies and projecting blame on an enemy. I think America should review its policies in Iraq."

He added Washington's aim was "to intensify a psychological war" against Tehran, and that it was making accusations for which it has "presented no evidence."

If Washington went ahead with implementing its threats "it will receive a crushing ... response," Rabiei warned.

The United States has expressed mounting concern about a flurry of attacks on Iraqi bases used by US troops, several of which it has blamed on Iranian-backed Shiite paramilitary groups.

Since Oct. 28, rockets have 10 times targeted areas where US soldiers and diplomats are based. The attacks have never been claimed.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Friday there would be a "decisive response" if American interests were harmed in Iraq – an ally of both Iran and the United States.

Tensions have been on the rise between the US and Iran, since US President Donald Trump last year decided to withdraw from a landmark 2015 nuclear accord agreed between Tehran and several world powers.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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