Trump warning to Doha hailed
dubai / washington — Saudi Arabia and its allies on Saturday welcomed a statement by President Donald Trump that Qatar was bankrolling extremism.
Trump’s comments came as Washington joins intensifying international efforts to heal the worsening rift between the key Gulf allies, which has escalated into the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.
The UAE welcomed “President Trump’s leadership in challenging Qatar’s troubling support for extremism”.
“The next step is for Qatar to acknowledge these concerns and commit to reexamine its regional policies,” UAE ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba told the official Wam news agency. “This will provide the necessary basis for any discussions,” he added.
Saudi Arabia said an immediate change of policy by Qatar was essential. “Fighting terrorism and extremism is no longer a choice, rather... a commitment requiring decisive and swift action to cut off all funding sources for terrorism regardless of its financier,” the Saudi Press Agency cited an official source as saying.
Bahrain “stressed the necessity of Qatar’s commitment to correct its policies and to engage in a transparent manner in counter-terrorism efforts”, its official BNA news agency said.
Qatar’s neighbours have given its citizens 14 days to leave, banned Qatari flights from their airspace and closed its only land border.
Trump on Friday accused Qatar of being a “high level” sponsor of terrorism. “The nation of Qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“So we had a decision to make, do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action. We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided ... the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding,” Trump said, adding that he helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders after a recent summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Trump has called key players in the region since they severed ties with Qatar on Monday. The Trump administration has given mixed signals on whether to isolate Qatar or bring it into talks with other Gulf nations.
Riyadh, Cairo and their allies have imposed restrictions on shipping and air traffic and closed Qatar’s only land border, causing panic buying at supermarkets and provoking confusion and anxiety across the population. A picture on Facebook showed a supermarket displaying food from Turkey including milk, eggs and chicken.
The UAE said on Friday that Qatar must acknowledge concerns about its “troubling support for extremism” and “re-examine its regional policies”. On Friday Arab states tightened their squeeze on Qatar by putting dozens of figures with links to the country on terrorism blacklists.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain added 59 people to terrorist blacklists, among them 18 Qataris, including Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani, a former interior minister and member of Qatar’s royal family.
The nation of Qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. So we had a decision to make, do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action. We have to stop the funding of terrorism.