Dammam- Without making a statement or holding a news conference, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left the Gulf on Friday after a tour that included Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Now, the region anticipates the arrival of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian who is expected to call for calm following the visits of Tillerson and his German and British counterparts.

However, the US State Department announced that Tillerson urged the parties concerned with the Qatari crisis to hold direct talks, saying that the next step will be to persuade them on direct dialogue to resolve the crisis.

“Based on his meetings, the secretary believes that getting the parties to talk directly to one another would be an important next step,” US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said.

“We hope the parties will agree to do so and we will continue to support the emir of Kuwait in his mediation efforts,” she added.

The statement was made hours after the end of Tillerson’s three-day visit to Arab and Gulf countries.

Tillerson had been flying between the two sides and Kuwait, which has been acting as the mediator, in the last three days. He then returned to Doha to meet Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the second time in 48 hours. Then, he left without making any statement.

Amidst ambiguity that surrounded the US Secretary of State’s visit, observers saw that the tour failed to allay concerns of prime states in the Gulf in addition to Egypt, which consider that the Qatari policy is triggering tension in the region due to its link with terrorist networks around the world.