Qatar smackdown day 3. (Or: The best Ramadan soap opera we’ve ever watched.) Turkey’s parliament approved a bill allowing its troops to be deployed to a Turkish military base in Qatar, largely supported by MPs from the ruling AK Party (AKP) and the nationalist opposition group MHP, according to Reuters. AKP lawmakers had proposed “debating two pieces of legislation: allowing Turkish troops to be deployed in Qatar and approving an accord between the two countries on military training cooperation.” Meanwhile, the AKP’s pals in the Ikhwan came out with a statement yesterday denying Saudi Arabia’s accusations that it is a terror group and called on the kingdom to stop supporting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the news wire said.

Turkey’s escalation came as France said it would not be taking sides in the row, but added that Qatar “must be completely transparent and answer its neighbours’ questions,” the government’s spokesman said. Late to the party is Comoros, which announced it was severing its diplomatic ties with the statelet, Al Shorouk reported. Djibouti also announced on Wednesday that it would downgrade its diplomatic relations with Qatar.

The pucker factor escalates: Yesterday’s diplomatic wrangling came as one official in Doha told Reuters there were enough grain supplies in the Statelet to last for four weeks “and that the government also had large strategic food reserves. But talks were underway to ensure supplies… brought in through Qatar Airways cargo flights.”

Give Qatar love, go to jail: The UAE has “tightened the squeeze” on Qatar further still, threatening penalties of up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to AED 500k on anyone who publishes any expression of sympathy towards Qatar “whether it be through the means of social media, or any type of written, visual or verbal form.” The penalties come under the UAE’s 2012 cybercrime law, Bloomberg notes. The UAE also banned all Qatari nationals from even transiting UAE airport and said foreigners with Qatari residence visas would be denied visas on arrival to the UAE. Reuters notes that the “transit ban on Qataris is stricter than restrictions on Israeli passport holders, who are allowed up to 24 hours to change planes at UAE airports.” Senior officials suggested that more restrictions on business could be in the works, Reuters reports.

Fingers point to Russia for alleged Qatar News Agency hack: In another twist to the drama, Qatari and US officials believe Russia was involved in the so-called “hack” alibi Qatar is using, according to CNN. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov angrily rejected the allegations, AP reports.

US President Trump offered to help to help the parties resolve their differences, including through a meeting at the White House if necessary, according to a statement from the White House.

Some banks in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are already cutting their exposure to Qatar, according to Bloomberg. “Some lenders in these countries have started withdrawing deposits from Qatari banks and stopped trading riyals and bonds,” sources said. Arqaam Capital analysts Jaap Meijer and Michael Malkoun reiterated that QNB Alahli Bank remains a “stand alone operation”and added that only 4% of QNB loan book originated in Egypt. The entire ordeal has led to a downgrade of the statelet’s credit ratings by Standards & Poor’s one notch to AA- from AA and suggested a significant chance of a further downgrade, Reuters reports.

Beyond banking, LNG trading house Trafigura said the regional spat has not yet had an impact on Qatar’s gas exports. “It’s much too early to say if there could be a disruption … The LNG market is an oversupplied market … the main focus is to secure customers … Egypt has been a very good business for us – both on the gas and products side. Last year we had a very significant market share in Egypt. It is lower this year. It’s a profitable business but not without a risk, credit risk,” CFO Christophe Salmon told Reuters. The situation is giving recruiters and contractors a “headache,” Recruiter says, with David Leyshon, chairman of Surrey-based technical recruiter CBSbutler, saying “Qatar has about 180,000 Egyptian nationals … future hiring and continuity of employment will undoubtedly suffer if the situation isn’t resolved quickly.”

Regarding the transfers back from those expats, there are no problems or restrictions on Egyptians’ remittances from Qatar, CBE Sub-Governor Tarek Fayed told MENA news agency, according to Al Masry Al Youm.