Trump loses another general as official charged with resolving Gulf dispute quits
Anthony Zinni, a retired general and the US envoy responsible for resolving the Qatar dispute, has resigned from his position at the State Department.
A US official told The National that the timing was unrelated to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to the Middle East and that Mr Zinni had agreed to join the administration in August 2017 on a temporary basis.
The resignation comes after the departure of two other generals, Defence Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Mr Zinni served as special envoy to the Middle East under president George W Bush, as well as the head of US Central Command.
He said he resigned after coming to the conclusion that he could not solve the Gulf dispute because of an inability to agree on what the mediation effort with Doha should be.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt cut trade, transport and diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017 over its support of extremists.
Mr Zinni made three trips to the Gulf since taking office in an attempt to reconcile Qatar and the boycotting countries.
But despite his personal relationships with Gulf leaders, his mediation efforts reflected a constrained US hand and influence in addressing the crisis.
His is the latest resignation by four-star generals from the Trump administration, the most recent being Mr Mattis.
The resignation came on the same day that Mr Pompeo set off for an eight-day tour of the Middle East to reassure Washington’s allies about its commitment to the region after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria and a contentious Senate vote on the Yemen civil war.
With Mr Zinni’s resignation, it is unclear what will happen to US efforts to resolve the Qatar dispute and bring together the GCC countries along with Egypt and Jordan in one coalition to be named the Middle East Strategic Alliance, or the “Arab Nato”.
Before Mr Pompeo’s trip, an official said the US still hoped to host the summit to launch the alliance in the first three months of the year.
Mr Pompeo and deputy assistant secretary of state for Arabian Gulf affairs Timothy Lenderking will visit Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman this week in an attempt to forge GCC unity.
But with Mr Zinni’s resignation and the continued standoff over Qatar’s support for terrorists, there appears to be no diplomatic breakthrough for the crisis on the horizon.
The US Senate has not confirmed Mr Trump’s nominations for ambassadors to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha.
Mr Zinni’s resignation, first reported by CBS, was confirmed by The National.