Al Jazeera and other Qatari news sources were blocked in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to Al Arabiya.
The news comes after controversial statements attributed to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the emirate's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani were posted by the Qatar News Agency (QNA).
These statements have since been removed and Qatar's Government Communications Office has said the news agency's website and its official Twitter account had been hacked. Doha News reported that the website of QNA was down for several hours after the alleged hacking occurred.
A series of tweets were posted to the official Twitter account of QNA saying that Qatar's foreign minister had recalled the emirate's ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE. The tweets also cited the foreign minister as saying their was a plot by these Arab countries against Qatar.
The tweets have been refuted by Qatari officials and the foreign minister. They have since been deleted from the Twitter feed as well.
On Tuesday, a news article was published by QNA's website that attributed several controversial quotes to Emir Sheikh Tamim. The emirate's leader was reported as saying that Qatar has “tensions” with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and acknowledged that Iran is an “Islamic power.”
“There is no wisdom in harboring hostility toward Iran," he also reportedly said during a commencement address at a military graduation, according to Al Arabiya.
The report has since been edited and the Government Communication Office strongly denied the accuracy of attributed quotes. Doha News also spoke to an attendee of the graduation who said that the emir avoided making any political statements and simply congratulated graduates on their success.
Tensions have previously arisen between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), mainly over the Muslim Brotherhood, which is considered to be one of the most influential Islamic organizations in the world.
While Qatar has supported the organization, the UAE has designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In 2014, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha due to a rift regarding the Islamic organization.
The ambassadors returned to Doha after Qatar publicly stated that it would "not allow itself to be used by the Brotherhood for its activities," according to Reuters.
Al Jazeera was also blocked by Bahraini authorities from attending the GCC summit in December.