Four Arab states boycotting Qatar over alleged support for terrorism have sent Doha a list of 13 demands including closing Al Jazeera television and reducing ties to their regional adversary Iran, an official of one of the four countries said.

Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, welcomed the choice of Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince, the Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has called for a public pledging of allegiance in Mecca on Wednesday to Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has been promoted to crown prince, Saudi-owned channel al-Arabiya said on Wednesday.

Iranian state media on Wednesday called the appointment of Mohammed Bin Salman to the position of crown prince and successor to Saudi Arabia's King Salman as a "soft coup".

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has been relieved of his post and replaced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a royal decree said on Wednesday, in a promotion for King Salman's 31-year-old son that confirms him as next ruler of the kingdom.

The Saudi journalist and host at Qatar’s Al-Jazeera Channel, announced his resignation.

Qatar's attorney general said on Tuesday his country has evidence that the hacking of Qatar's state news agency was linked to countries that have severed ties with Doha.

Iraq's army said it encircled Islamic State's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul on Tuesday after taking over an area to the north of the densely populated historic district.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Monday that he plans to travel to the United States next week to discuss the impact of a rift with Gulf Arab states on its economy and on the fight against terrorism.

Barclays (BARC.L) and four former top executives were charged with fraud on Tuesday over undisclosed payments to Qatari investors as part of a 12 billion pound ($15 billion) emergency fundraising during the financial crisis in 2008.

Qatar will not negotiate with its neighbors to resolve the Gulf dispute unless they first lift the trade and travel boycott they imposed two weeks ago, its foreign minister said, but added Doha still believed a solution was possible.

Emirates Writers Union banned its members from dealing with any Qatari organization or participating in any activity organized or financed by Qatar.

An Iranian ministry of interior official said on Monday that Saudi Arabia's claim that it had detained three members of the Iranian military was not correct, according to a report by the Young Journalists Club news site.

The Saudi navy has captured three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from a boat seized last week as it approached the kingdom's offshore Marjan oilfield, the Saudi information ministry said on Monday.

Qatar's main seaport shows all the signs of having weathered the storm. Workers in hard hats monitor as giant yellow cranes lift hundreds of containers off cargo ships onto lorries waiting ashore.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government said on Saturday it agreed to a two-point plan advanced by the United Nations to ease suffering in the country's civil war, but the Iran-aligned Houthi movement remained skeptical.

Iraqi forces began storming the Islamic State-held Old City of Mosul on Sunday, in an assault they hope will be the last in the eight-month-old campaign to seize the militants' stronghold.

Qatar will not cut off gas to the United Arab Emirates despite a diplomatic dispute and a "force majeure" clause in its contract, the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum told Al Jazeera network, two weeks after some Gulf Arab states severed ties with Doha.

Iran fired missiles on Sunday into eastern Syria, aiming at the bases of militant groups it holds responsible for attacks in Tehran which left 18 dead last week, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi headed on Monday to Saudi Arabia, the first leg of a Middle East tour that will also include Iran and Kuwait, in a diplomatic effort to foster regional reconciliation, his office said.