Trump assails Qatar despite Tillerson’s call for ‘calm’
WASHINGTON — Reversing himself again, President Donald Trump on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Qatar, accusing the Persian Gulf nation of being a “funder of terror at a very high level” and demanding that it cut off that money flow to rejoin the circle of responsible nations.
Trump’s comments undercut his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who has thrown himself into an effort to mediate a resolution to a bitter dispute between Qatar and several of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. Earlier Friday, Tillerson called for “calm and thoughtful dialogue” to resolve the crisis.
The president’s comments were anything but that, and they suggested a continuing divide between Trump and his advisers about how best to deal with Qatar, which is arguably the nation’s most important military outpost in the Middle East.
“We want you back among the unity of responsible nations,” Trump said. “We ask Qatar and other nations in the region to do more and do it faster.”
The mixed messages extended to the Pentagon, which issued a statement shortly before Trump’s news conference, reaffirming Qatar’s critical role as a military partner to the United States and expressing concern that the deepening instability would hurt the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State.
“While current operations from Al Udeid Air Base have not been hindered or curtailed, the evolving situation is hindering our ability to plan for longer-term military operations,” Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement, citing the large military installation in Qatar.
Trump suggested that his tough words were the result of a policy deliberation that included the military and Tillerson. “We had a decision to
make: Do we take the easy road or do we take a hard but necessary action?” he said. “We have to stop the funding of terrorism.”
For Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil who has deep personal contacts in the Persian Gulf, Qatar has emerged as an early test of his diplomatic skills. His approach appeared to be one of trying to lower the temperature on all sides.
“We ask that there be no further escalation by parties in the region,” Tillerson said just hours after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates listed 59 people and a dozen organizations linked to Qatar, including prominent Qatari businessmen, politicians and royalty, as aiding terrorism.
The listing deepened a five-day standoff that has included a cutoff of all diplomatic relations, travel and trade with Qatar, forcing the country to import critical food supplies by air from Turkey and elsewhere.
Tillerson noted that the standoff has had serious humanitarian consequences, including food shortages, family separations and children being pulled out of school. Military operations in the region have also been affected, as has the functioning of U.S. and international businesses, he said.
Tillerson’s remarks followed days of quiet negotiations that were nearly upended by Trump, who inserted himself into the dispute with a series of tweets that seemed to put the United States squarely on the side of the Saudis, despite Washington’s close military partnership with both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology,” he wrote. “Leaders pointed to Qatar — look!”
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad alThani, has made progress in cutting off funding to groups linked to terrorism, Tillerson said. “But he must do more, and he must do it more quickly,” he added.
Tillerson has spent days on the phone with officials from the region, and he said he has known Qatar’s emir for 15 years and also knows his son.
“It’s clear to me based on these comments that the elements of a solution are available,” Tillerson said Friday.