WASHINGTON — American President Donald Trump on Friday called on Qatar to stop funding terrorism as his state department urged Arab states to ease their blockade on the country and calm tensions.
Trump said he spoke with regional leaders in the wake of a recent meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and he had decided it was time to call on Qatar to end its support of terrorist groups.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar on Monday over long-standing allegations that Doha was courting Iran and fomenting instability in the region.
"The nation of Qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"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."
Gulf allies tightened their squeeze on Qatar on Friday by putting dozens of figures with links to the tiny, wealthy nation on terrorism blacklists.
In a swift reaction the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador in US said, “UAE welcomes Trump's leadership in challenging Qatar's troubling support for extremism.”
Taking what appeared to be a different position to Trump's hard line, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made clear on Friday he expected all parties to end the crisis. "We call on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar," he said in Washington.
Tillerson told reporters at the State Department that the crisis, which has cut transportation links and trade, had begun to hurt ordinary people in Qatar, impaired business dealings and harmed the US battle against the Daesh (so-called IS) militant group. He demanded that Qatar, as well as the other nations, take steps to curtail support for terrorism.
Shortly after Tillerson's remarks, the Pentagon said that while the Qatar blockade was not affecting current operations against Daesh, it was "hindering" the ability to plan for long-term operations.
Trump, Egypt's Sisi discuss Arab unity, fighting terrorism
President Trump spoke on Friday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and emphasized the importance of maintaining unity among Arab countries, the White House said in a statement.
It was the fourth call Trump has had with a regional leader since Gulf allies severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on Monday over long-standing allegations that Doha is courting Iran.
The two leaders also agreed on the importance of all countries implementing agreements recently reached at a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to fight terrorism, counter extremism, and stop the funding of terrorist groups, the statement said. — Reuters
