WASHINGTON Official Washington, from the president on down, is working on damage control for a Mideast crisis inextricably linked to its favorite ambassador.

President Donald Trump , Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and scores of other officials are trying to convince a group of U.S. partner countries among them the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to restore ties with a separate U.S.-aligned nation, Qatar, their neighbor and the home of the regions largest American military base.

The Mideast countries shocked Washington on Sunday night when, one by one, they announced that they were severing all ties with Qatar even effectively blockading the nation, which occupies a small piece of land jutting off the main Arabian Peninsula. The UAE gave the U.S. government a heads up about the move only just before the public announcements began, a State Department spokeswoman told reporters Tuesday.

All the while, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, arguably Washingtons most powerful and, some would say, charming diplomat and the chief driver of the anti-Qatar campaign in the U.S., has laid low.