UPDATED: Tillerson calls for ease on blockade against Qatar

[DonViejo]

Last edited Fri Jun 9, 2017, 04:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Hill


BY REBECCA KHEEL - 06/09/17 01:58 PM EDT

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Friday for several countries to ease a blockade against Qatar, while saying the country did need to address its neighbor’s concerns about terrorist financing.

“I call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar,” Tillerson said during a four-minute speech at the State Department. “There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade. We’re seeing shortages of food. Families are being forcibly separated, and children pulled out of school. We believe these are unintended consequences.”

Tillerson’s statement came after this week’s Middle East crisis appeared to escalate Friday when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain released a new list of sanctions against a dozen organizations and 59 people linked to Qatar.

The crisis started Monday when those four countries cut diplomatic ties and closed all land, sea and air borders with Qatar. Several other countries followed suit. They cited Qatar’s relations with Iran, as well as what they say is Qatar’s support for extremist groups such as Hamas, al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/337149-tillerson-calls-for-ease-to-blockade-against-qatar

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Trump Contradicts Tillerson Line On Blockade Of Qatar Within Hours

By MATT SHUHAM Published JUNE 9, 2017 4:20 PM

President Donald Trump contradicted his own secretary of state on Friday, hours after Rex Tillerson called on Gulf states to ease their blockade on Qatar.

“We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar,” Tillerson said. “There are humanitarian consequences to this blockade. We are seeing shortages of food, families are being forcibly separated, and children pulled out of school. We believe these are unintended consequences, especially during this Holy Month of Ramadan, but they can be addressed immediately.”

Trump, on the other hand, took the side of the four gulf states implementing the blockade over Qatar’s alleged funding of terrorist groups. Tillerson was sitting in the front row of the crowd gathered in the White House Rose Garden for Trump’s joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, according to NBC News’ Hallie Jackson.

“The nation of Qatar, unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” he said, before referencing his meeting with the Arab-Islamic American Summit on May 21, in Saudi Arabia. “And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior. 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.”

He added: “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.”

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-contradicts-tillerson-qatar

[Initech]

1. We need to get our troops the fuck out of there.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. What a down right joke.

Exxon made the phone call and old Rex went to the Mic. LNG ships turned around yesterday and the Boys at the Oil and Gas market desks are pissed. Still all about Oil and nothing has change.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. They've already had to update the story to point out Trump said the opposite earlier

They've inserted "he sought to find a middle ground after President Trump tweeted support for the blockade this week".

I mean, how screwed up is it when the Secretary of State has to find a 'middle ground' between his president and an ally, involving the cutting of diplomatic ties and a blockade?

[Eugene]

4. WaPo: Trump seems to undercut comments from Secretary of State Tillerson on Qatar

Source: Washington Post

Trump seems to undercut comments from Secretary of State Tillerson on Qatar

By Karen DeYoung and Sudarsan Raghavan June 9 at 4:34 AM

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on a Saudi Arabia-led bloc of Arab nations Friday to immediately ease their blockade of Qatar and urged all involved in the week-long Persian Gulf dispute to quickly resolve their differences, remarks that President Trump seemed to undercut less than an hour later.

Trump began a Rose Garden news conference with the visiting president of Romania by saying that the Saudi-led action against Qatar was “hard but necessary.” He said he had been consulted in advance by nations that “spoke to me about confronting Qatar,” a country he said historically has been a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

He said he had decided, along with Tillerson and “our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end that funding … and its extremist ideology.”

Earlier, in a brief, formal statement at the State Department, Tillerson had called Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease their blockade, warning that it was causing humanitarian hardship in Qatar, harming U.S. and international business, and hindering U.S. military actions against the Islamic State.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/arab-countries-place-dozens-on-new-qatar-terror-list-deepening-dispute/2017/06/09/fd727fab-e750-4fdd-ac23-26256e8e0493_story.html