WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani following his earlier calls with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.

According to a White House statement, Trump and the emir discussed regional development and opportunities to further enhance U.S.-Qatari partnership on security and economic issues.

Trump thanked the Qatari sovereign for promoting cooperation among all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, saying that bettering GCC partnership can help counter Iran's "destabilizing" activities and defeat terrorists and extremists.

The leaders also agreed on the importance of regional cooperation and a united GCC for mitigating regional threats and ensuring the region's economic prosperity.

On Tuesday, Trump spoke respectively with UAE's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when he encouraged the two nations to enhance Gulf cooperation to counter Iran's regional influence.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusations.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."