WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke respectively with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, when he encouraged the two nations to enhance the Gulf cooperation to counter

The White House said in a statement that in Trump's call with UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Trump extended hope that all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states could better counter Iran's "destabilizing" activities and defeat terrorists and extremists.

In a separate call on Tuesday too with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump thanked the crown prince for boosting GCC cooperation to counter Tehran's influence and agreed with him on the importance of a united GCC to "mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, among other countries accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and undermining regional security by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusation.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."