Washington: Amid a raging diplomatic face-off between Qatar and its neighbours, US President Donald Trump has accused Doha of “historically” being a funder of terrorism and asked the Gulf emirate along with other nations to stop “teaching hate”.
“Stop funding (terrorism). Stop teaching hate. Stop the killing,” Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House in a joint news conference with the visiting Romanian President Klaus Johannis.
In a strong-worded opening remarks, Trump alleged that Qatar was funding terrorism at the “highest level” and asked other countries doing the same to stop with immediate effect.
“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behaviour,” Trump told reporters at the news conference.
“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, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding – they have to end that funding – and its extremist ideology in terms of funding,” said the US President.
“I want to call on all of the nations to stop immediately supporting terrorism, stop teaching people to kill other people, stop filling their minds with hate and intolerance. I won’t name other countries, but we are not done solving the problem. But we will solve that problem. Have no choice,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came after his top diplomat Rex Tillerson appealed to Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to ease their blockade of Qatar, saying it is hindering US military actions in the region and the fight against the Islamic State.
In his remarks, Trump said he has just returned from a historic trip to Europe and the Middle East, where he worked to strengthen its alliances, forge new friendships and unite all civilised people in the fight against terrorism.
“No civilised nation can tolerate this violence or allow this wicked ideology to spread on its shores. I addressed a summit of more than 50 Arab and Muslim leaders, a unique meeting in the history of nations, where key players in the region agreed to stop supporting terrorism, whether it be financial, military or even moral support,” Trump said.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have cut ties with Qatar, accusing their former Gulf Cooperation Council ally of supporting extremist groups.
Trump said defeating ISIS and other terror organisations is something he has emphasised all during his campaign.
“To do that, stop funding, stop teaching hate and stop the killing,” he said.”For Qatar, we want you back among the unity of responsible nations. We ask Qatar and other nations in the region to do more and do it faster,” the US President said.
Saudi Arabia issues 10,000 Riyal fine for watching al-Jazeera
Saudi Arabia issued an outright ban against watching the al-Jazeera TV channel on Thursday, in the latest bizarre twist in its on-going diplomatic spat with Qatar.
The Saudi commission for tourism and national heritage issued a warning of a 10,000 riyal ($2700) fine if any tourist outlet failed to censor the Qatari news channel.
“The commission affirms the necessity to cancel a number of al-Jazeera media channels inside tourism accommodation,” the unsigned letter reads.
The letter references law 1214, dated 13 January 2011, related to television transmissions.
Saudi Arabia is currently engaged in a diplomatic row with Qatar over its financial support for media networks that publish truth to power.
Many analysts believe the incident and the campaign that followed were planned in advance, to justify the current blockade on Qatar and force a major policy change from the more independently minded Doha.
Riyadh has called on Qatar to stop its support for Iran and Muslim Brotherhood, but several news pundits have pointed towards its real objective – to close down news organisations that are critical of the Saudi royal family.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, the engineers of the blockade, have spared no means in the current diplomatic and media war on Qatar: expulsion of diplomats and ordinary citizens, the blocking of airspace, severing of marine and land routes, and even a banking and postal embargo.
In the media sphere, Saudi Arabia and the UAE reportedly instructed outlets they fund to ignore all facts and denials from Qatar and crank up the pro-government propaganda machine. Together with Egypt, they have blocked several Qatari-supported and independent television channels and websites. The UAE and Bahrain have even criminalised expression of sympathy with Qatar.
The measures by the Saudi-Emirati camp against Qatar are proving unpopular within a large segment of the Gulf public opinion, who are wise to the fabricated outrage and have noticed the convergence between Saudi Arabia and Israel in bashing Qatar.
Hashtags in solidarity with Qatar have been trending this week, all the way from Mauritania and Turkey (Qatar Is Not Alone), to Saudi Arabia (Statements of Al Jubair Do Not Represent Me) and the rest of the Gulf.
A Twitter robot army, linked previously to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has been deployed to quickly contain and steer such narratives on Twitter.
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