Trump just slammed US ally Qatar an hour after his administration defended it
The president seems to be willing to throw Qatar
— and the credibility of his diplomats
— under the bus
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President Donald Trump doubled down on his war of words with one of America's top Middle East allies, publicly undercutting one of his own senior aides and potentially threatening the future of a vital US military base.
At a press conference with the president of Romania on Friday, President Trump slammed the country of Qatar, which hosts 11,000 US military personnel at its Al Udeid Air Base and is currently the target of a multi-country diplomatic boycott and blockade in the Middle East led by Saudi Arabia.
“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said. “I've decided, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, our great generals, and military people, the time has come to call on Qatar to end its funding. They have to end that funding. And its extremist ideology in terms of funding.”
But just an hour earlier, Tillerson was publicly defending Qatar. Speaking to reporters at the State Department, he called for the countries that had severed ties with Qatar to "immediately take steps to de-escalate the situation and put forth a good faith effort to resolve the grievances they have with each other.” He argued that the boycott impeded US military efforts, and was also objectionable on “humanitarian” grounds.
The completely divergent stances echoed the diplomatic chaos we saw earlier this week when the president departed sharply from the lines that Tillerson and the US ambassador to Qatar took in the immediate aftermath of the boycott. On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off ties to Qatar by land, water, and air in a tightly coordinated move, claiming that it was backing terrorist activity in the region.
The US ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith, tried to appeal for calm on Twitter by drawing attention to the US’s past statements of support for Qatar’s work in combating terrorism financing and highlighting the “great partnership” between the US and Qatar.
Tillerson also weighed in on behalf of Qatar, encouraging dialogue and cooperation between the states in the region. “We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences,” Tillerson said in Australia on Monday. “If there’s any role that we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the [Gulf Cooperation Council] remain unified.” (The GCC is the club of Persian Gulf nations that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Qatar are a part of.)
But then along came the president to make everything more complicated.
On Tuesday morning he rattled off some tweets that were at odds with US diplomats’ statements the day before. He instead embraced Saudi’s decision, and suggested their actions were a result of his own recent rhetoric on counterterrorism.
“So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off,” he tweeted, referring to his visit to the country weeks ago. “They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!”
And today, he made it even worse.
In his desperation to take credit for Saudi’s move, to showcase it as an example of his ability to shape global events, Trump appears to be throwing Qatar under the bus. And he is willing to flatly contradict the top diplomatic personnel in his government and diminish the credibility of US rhetoric abroad in the process.
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There are links in the Original article , by Zeeshan Aleem , Vox
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I don't pretend to understand the constantly shifting coalitions among Middle Eastern states. And if I don't understand, I'm pretty sure that Donald doesn't.
It seems clear that Qatar has given money to organizations that the US has labeled "terrorist"... but then... the US throws the "terrorist" label around pretty freely, so the same accusation of "money to terrorists" can be made for every state in the ME.
The one fact (ouch!! sorry to use dirty words) is that the US has an important military airbase in Qatar.
These people do not know what they are doing!!!
One has to wonder how long senior staff are willing to have their credibility and reputations destroyed by Trump.
Tillerson, McMaster and Mattis seem to be willing to look like idiots at the hand of the tweeter in chief.
Sad
Qatar funds Hamas. FACT
Hamas fires missiles into Israeli civilian areas. FACT
Israel is a valued ally of the USA. FACT
America has pledged to defend Israel. FACT
America should move its airbase to a country that does not fund terrorism. OPINION
If America does not move its airbase, then indirectly, America is supporting terrorism and the attempted destruction of Israel. OPINION
I see a conflict of interest. FACT? OPINION?
The problem, Buzz, is that every ME country has financed "terrorist" groups. It's silly to point a finger at any particular one. Are we really going to accept Saudi Arabia pretending outraged virtue? Seriously?
It's like a parent accepting one child's "SHE hit me first!"... when the fight has been going on for ten minutes.
A plague on all their houses!
I'm sure Mashaal is more comfortable there than in any other ME country. I wonder why?
I'm not going to debate whether we should prefer cholera or boubonic plague.
If you wish to see angelism in Salaifist Saudi Arabia... I leave you to it...
Exactly.
They are all duplicitous. There's no good reason to prefer one over another. This intra-Arab spat should be a good opportunity to stay quiet.
Oh, wait... Donald...
It's silly to point a finger at any particular one. Are we really going to accept Saudi Arabia pretending outraged virtue?
The US has been playing one middle eastern country against another for many decades . It was the original dynamics of the events in Iran vs Iraq .
Exactly.
We have made a mess of rhe ME with our meddling. It's high time we tried a different approach: letting the locals manage their affairs!
It's high time we tried a different approach
I'm not seeing anything high about the future times . Letting locals "manage" means returning to the destructive control of dictators in charge . Iran immediately comes to mind ...
Letting locals "manage" means returning to the destructive control of dictators in charge .
None of our interventions, tens of thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, have "installed democracy".
Iran immediately comes to mind ...
Iran had a democratically elected government, with a Prime Minister named Mossadegh. We organized a coup d'état to overthrow that government, and install an absolute autocrat with a bloody secret police.
Iranians remember that. They don't like the ayatollahs, but they flat-out hated the Shah and his Savak. And they feel American hypocrisy (preaching democracy while supporting dictators) very deeply. We screwed them, and they haven't forgotten.
Look at American foreign policy all over the world. We overthrew a democratic regime in Chile and installed a savage dictator, Pinochet. You will have a very hard time trying to find a single case of our fostering a democracy. Foreigners don't have rose-colored glasses; they don't suppose that everything that America does is fine and good. They observe lucidly.
An empire wants to control. So from an empire's point of view, the Shah is better than Mossadegh, and Pinochet is better than Allende. Empires prefer autocrats to democrats, because an autocrat will take orders, in exchange for power.
None of our interventions, tens of thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, have "installed democracy".
Maybe not but Egypt has been better off than B4 .
We overthrew a democratic regime in Chile and installed a savage dictator, Pinochet.
Chile is doing quite well in recent decades .
Maybe not but Egypt has been better off than B4 .
I'm not sure that's true... but in any case, the US has pretty much kept hands-off since the Arab Spring. We at least haven't made things worse.
Chile is doing quite well in recent decades .
Yes. Since the end of the Pinochet regime, Chile has gradually recovered from its ravages. How does that make the overthrow of a democracy any less wrong?
In June 1973, Salvador Allende appointed Augusto Pinochet as commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army. Allende was unaware that Pinochet was plotting with the CIA to remove him from power. On 11th September 1973, Pinochet led a military coup against Allende's government. Allende died in the fighting in the presidential palace in Santiago.
Blaming Pinochet on the US govt is uncalled for . It was a CIA operation . That organization was beyond the admonitions of the US govt back then ... maybe still is .
Blaming Pinochet on the US govt is uncalled for . It was a CIA operation . That organization was beyond the admonitions of the US govt back then ... maybe still is .
Do you consider the "United States Central Intelligence Agency" to be independent of the United States? Wouldn't that mean that reining in such a wayward outfit should be one of the any administration's highest priorities?
Wouldn't that mean that reining in such a wayward outfit should be one of the any administration's highest priorities?
IDK , feel free to make such an attempt urself . BUT watch out for the hidden consequences ...
What"s the difference between a rogue CIA that overthrows democratic regimes and... a "terrorist organization" like Hezbollah?
Trump got his intel from the orb. It must be legit.
Who else had their hands on the orb?
Aha!!