By William Mauldin

A high-level meeting between officials from the U.S. and Qatar this week offers a chance for the Middle Eastern country to work toward healing a rift with its neighbors, as well as helping Washington solidify a key relationship in the volatile region.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are set to meet leading officials from Qatar on Monday to kick off the two-day U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue, officials said.

Two framework agreements, on culture and economic cooperation, will be signed by the U.S. and by the Qatari delegation, which will be led by Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al-Emadi, according to Qatar's ambassador to the U.S., Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani.

Qatar, a tiny country on the Arabian Peninsula with tremendous gas reserves, has carved out an outsize role as an intermediary in regional disagreements, as a source of influence through its Al Jazeera media outlet and as the host of the largest U.S. air base in the region. Mr. Pompeo traveled to the capital of Doha over the weekend to support brand-new talks there between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

While not formally recognizing Israel, Qatar has cooperated with Israelis and helped to mediate disputes.

Yet in the last three years Qatar has seen much of its own trade and travel blocked by countries in the region -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt -- in a dispute that has soured relations and even barred Muslim pilgrims' visits to Mecca, Ambassador al-Thani said. The countries blame Qatar for facilitating financial support for Middle East terrorist groups, a charge Qatari officials deny, among other accusations.

President Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Sept. 6 and called for an end to the rift among Persian Gulf neighbors. Few expect an immediate resolution, but the Trump administration is eager to work on the dispute. One possibility is that the U.S. can persuade Saudi Arabia to end its ban on Qatari flights over the kingdom.

"It's the sort of opportunity that diplomats get excited about," said Simon Henderson, who leads the Persian Gulf and energy program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "It might well be that this is a step process, and if Saudi Arabia can be peeled off from this rift, then the U.A.E.'s position" may come under pressure as well, he said.

The Trump administration last week announced that Bahrain would normalize its relations with Israel, following up on a deal between the UAE and Israel last month. Qatar is unlikely to formalize its relations with Israel without progress in talks with the Palestinians or movement toward a two-state solution.

"What Qatar wants to see in the region is stability and peace," Ambassador al-Thani told journalists Friday at his residence outside Washington. "Whether normalization is going to lead to that is yet to be discovered."

Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com