A softer tone on Qatar? The Arab quartet boycotting Qatar said yesterday they would allow Qatari airlines to use emergency air traffic corridors as of 1 August, according to a Saudi Press Agency statement. Doha denies the news, saying the quartet is spreading “false information,” Reuters reports. Reconciliation talks have not yet begun, Reuters says in a report noting that the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi, the UAE, and Bahrain met in Manama yesterday. The quartet’s 13 demands have reportedly trimmed down to six. Doha, meanwhile, has reportedly been busy complaining to the UN that Riyadh should “internationalize” the Hajj. Saudi called the suggestion a “declaration of war” and Doha has denied the report.

Meanwhile, international banks have started serving Qatari clients from New York and London instead of Dubai, as the spat with Qatar has been “making it harder to do business” with it from the region, Bloomberg reports. “Lenders that handled clients such as the Qatar Investment Authority and wealthy family offices out of the Dubai International Financial Centre are shifting coverage to other global financial hubs to avoid damaging relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” unnamed sources revealed. Some Qatari clients reportedly “prefer to work with bankers outside of the Gulf region,” the article says.

That’s just one way the blockade is hitting the Qatari economy: Reserves fell 30% in June as Qatar uses them to ease the liquidity crunch, imports have plummeted nearly a third, and the stock market is rocky, Bloomberg notes in a separate piece.