President Trump
Comment comes as Tillerson calls for end to blockade
levels criticism at Qatar, accusing the country of funding terrorism “at a very high level.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump accused Qatar on Friday of funding terrorism “at a very high level,” and said solving the problem in the tiny Persian Gulf nation could be “the beginning of the end of terrorism.”
“No more funding,” Trump said.
Launching an extraordinary allegation against a key U.S. military partner, Trump derided what he called Qatar’s “extremist ideology in terms of funding” terrorist groups, an accusation Qatar has repeatedly denied. His comments were an endorsement of this week’s move by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to cut ties to Qatar.
Trump said Arab leaders he met with in Saudi Arabia last month urged him to confront Qatar over its behavior.
“The time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding,” Trump said. “They have to end that funding.”
Speaking in the Rose Garden, the president said Qatar had “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Other U.S. officials have said that Qatar has taken steps to reduce terror funding but that the steps are insufficient.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Trump’s condemnation might affect U.S. cooperation with Qatar, which hosts some 10,000 U.S. troops and a major U.S. air base that serves as a staging ground for operations in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Qatari Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Only an hour before, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a very different message, calling on the Arab nations to immediately ease their blockade on Qatar.
“The blockage is hindering U.S. military action in the region, and the campaign against ISIS,” Tillerson said, using an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group. Tillerson has been tapped by Trump to help mediate the crisis.
Tillerson, too, faulted Qatar for allowing funds to flow to extremist groups, but in terms that were less severe. Tillerson said the U.S. was asking Qatar to “be responsive to the concerns of its neighbors.”
“Qatar has a history of supporting groups that span the spectrum of political expression, from activism to violence,” Tillerson said. He credited Qatar’s emir with making progress in curbing financial support and expelling terrorists, but added: “He must do more, and he must do it more quickly.”
Tillerson, speaking at the State Department, said the U.S. would help support efforts to mediate the crisis, along with Kuwait, which has stepped up to broker a resolution.
Urging all sides to avoid further escalation of the conflict, Tillerson said the elements were available to resolve it.
Tillerson’s plea to Qatar’s neighbors to pull back their efforts to isolate the nation marked a shift from previous statements by the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, Trump took to Twitter to take credit for the Saudi-led move to punish Qatar, saying it could be the start of the end of terrorism in the Middle East. He noted that during his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, Arab leaders he’d met with had joined in warning about Qatari support for terrorism.
Since Saudi Arabia and other nations cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar on Monday, the U.S. military has insisted that it would not affect U.S. military operations in the region.
But Tillerson said the crisis was indeed affecting the U.S. military.
Qatar has long denied supporting or funding terror groups. But Western diplomats accuse Qatar’s government of allowing or even encouraging the funding of some Sunni extremists. try to