Everything Is Cool In Qatar, Guys; The Trump Administration Has Got This
Big-league coherent policy. The most coherent ever.
Good times . . .
“Relationships get better or weaker, and I’m committed to making it better from our side.”
— Sec. Defense James Mattis, April 22, 2017
“Qatar, which hosts the U.S. Central Command, is a crucial strategic partner.”
— President Donald J. Trump, May 21, 2017
“One of the things we will discuss is [Qatar’s]purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment because nobody makes it like the United States.”
— President Donald J. Trump, May 21, 2017
Seems a good time to RT this one:
This is so important, I’m sharing it again. Great partnership, real progress to counter terrorist financing. #Qatar https://goo.gl/Vr2qoR
— U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Dana Shell Smith, June 5, 2017
“We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences, and we — if there’s any role that we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the GCC remain unified.”
— Sec. State Rex Tillerson, June 5, 2017
— President Donald J. Trump, June 6, 2017
“The president emphasized the importance of all countries in the region working together to prevent the financing of terrorist organizations and stop the promotion of extremist ideology.
The president offered to help the parties resolve their differences, including through a meeting at the White House if necessary.”
— White House statement, June 7, 2017
“I call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar… 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… The blockade is hindering U.S. military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS.
“The Emir of Qatar has made progress in halting [support for and financing of terrorist groups] but he must do more and do it quickly.”
— Sec. State Rex Tillerson, June 9, 2017
“The nation of Qatar has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.
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.”
— President Donald J. Trump, June 9, 2017 [1 hour later]
“I believe that (Qatar’s) Prince Thani inherited a difficult, very tough situation, and he’s trying to turn the society in the right direction. But we all agree that funding of any kind of terrorist group is inimical to all of our interest.”
— Sec. Defense James Mattis, June 13, 2017
“Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis met today with Qatari Minister of State for Defense Affairs Dr. Khalid al-Attiyah to discuss concluding steps in finalizing the Foreign Military Sales purchase of US-manufactured F-15 fighter aircraft by the State of Qatar. The $12 billion sale will give Qatar a state of the art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the United States and Qatar.”
— Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Roger Cabiness, June 14, 2017
“Our role has been to encourage the parties to get their issues on the table, clearly articulated, so that those issues can be addressed and some resolution process can get under way to bring this to a conclusion.”
— Sec. State Rex Tillerson, June 21, 2017
Andrew Leber is based in Boston.
