In between the biggest diplomatic face-off between Qatar and the rest of the middle-east, US President Donald Trump accused Doha of backing terrorism. Calling it the funder of terrorism, Trump asked the Gulf emirate along with other nations to stop “teaching hate”.
“Stop funding (terrorism). Stop teaching hate. Stop the killing,” Trump said. In a press conference, 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.
“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 remarks come after his top diplomat Rex Tillerson appealed to Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to ease their blockade of Qatar.
“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.
Notably, 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.
