Trump administration and Qatar: What lies beneath?

The political aspirations of Qatar, the Brotherhood and their eventual allies, are counting on the fragmentation of the American position in favor of Doha.

The news from Qatar’s direct and indirect platforms suggests that Washington is not pleased with the Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini and Egyptian stances against Qatar’s harmful policies.

In fact, those who heard the statements of the head of the US administration, Donald Trump, will find that they are identical to those of the Arab countries that boycotted Qatar due to the latter’s support and funding for the Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist groups.

However, they might find that the statements of the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are ambiguous, and to a lesser extent those of the Pentagon.

A few days ago, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikky Halley spoke to the US Congress and said that the Brotherhood was a source of problems in the Middle East. She even added to that when talking about the Qatari crisis; she said that “Washington has a military base in Doha, but Trump is focused solely on eradicating ISIS and terrorism.”

Which statements really express Trump’s management, and is there a problem? Denis Ross highlighted these problems, in the article he wrote on June 23rd where he said: “The time has come to tell the Qataris that we will be giving up the military base and the implicit security guarantee to Qatar, unless it stops supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Confusing messages

He addressed the Trump administration saying that “the confusing messages sent by the US administration should end; from one side, President Trump is said to be the first supporter of the Saudi campaign putting pressure on Qatar, stating that (Qatar must stop funding terrorism) and (its extremist ideology related to the financial support). From the other side, the Pentagon praised Qatar’s contributions to the US military efforts and Tillerson called to end the Saudi-led boycott.”

He concluded with the following strategic advice: “In a confusing scene, the administration should not let any doubt in its objectives and priorities.” This point highlighted by Dennis Ross, as the real starting point. The words of some Westerners, such as the Germans, are somewhat biased to the Qatari-Brotherhood stance, under the pretext that it is the right time now to unify the efforts to fight terrorism and ISIS.

Well, did Riyadh, Manama, Abu Dhabi and Cairo boycott the Qatari state, because of a dispute over customs tariffs or fruit prices? The anger erupted precisely because Doha contributed, in various ways, to chaos, terrorists and networks of Islamized terrorists.

On the one hand, the West blame us – except Trump – on our sluggishness in the fight against terrorism as they claim, and when we are active to fight terrorism, they blames us again! Dennis Ross said it clearly... Being ambiguous during these times is dangerous, pointing at Minister Tillerson.

This article is also available in Arabic.
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Saudi journalist Mashari Althaydi presents Al Arabiya News Channel’s “views on the news” daily show “Maraya.” He has previously held the position of a managing senior editor for Saudi Arabia & Gulf region at pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Althaydi has published several papers on political Islam and social history of Saudi Arabia. He appears as a guest on several radio and television programs to discuss the ideologies of extremist groups and terrorists. He tweets under @MAlthaydy.