Qatar

Niraj Srivastava
21st Century Wire 

President Trump’s meddling hand in the Mideast encouraged the Saudi-Qatari showdown and made Secretary of State Tillerson’s job all the more nettlesome, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will stay in…Read more →

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, arrive at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, April 9, 2016. (U.S. Air Force via AP)
The latest in a series of moves by President Trump that appeared to throw a wrench into State Department efforts to calm the Qatar blockade situation saw him telling the Saudi King today that the US could well just abandon their largest military base in the Middle East, the al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar.

Today marks the one  year anniversary of a coup in Turkey which briefly threatened to topple the rule of Turkey’s strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The failure of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in four-day talks with the Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and a Kuwaiti official, to mediate an end to the inter-Arab dispute over Qatar, suggests that U.S. influence in the Middle East is waning. Even in the wake of the most recent massive Saudi arms deal announced during Trump’s visit to Riyadh on June 5, and the president’s receipt of the King Abdulaziz al Saud Collar, Washington is unable to dissuade its “enduring partner” from its highly rash course of action.

(MEE) — A former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia has said the kingdom has been funding mosques across Europe that promote an “extremist” version of Islam, the Guardian has reported.

RT | July 12, 2017 UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd has confirmed an already much-delayed report into the foreign funding and support of extremist groups in the UK will be banned from publication for “national security” reasons. Rudd instead released a parliamentary written answer outlining the details of the report, which was commissioned by former […]

(MEE) — Jared Kushner, the son-in-law to US President Donald Trump and a senior White House adviser, sought a $500m investment from Qatar for a New York skyscraper shortly before the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and a host of other countries, according to an Intercept article on Monday.

It was difficult to work out exactly what is behind the ‘Qatar Diplomatic Crisis’ that seemed to suddenly emerge early in June. The Qatar diplomatic crisis apparently began on 5th June when several countries – principally Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE – abruptly cut off diplomatic relations. This included trade and travel bans. […]

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives at the Hangzhou Exhibition Center to participate in G20 Summit, Sept. 4, 2016 in Hangzhou, China. (Etienne Oliveau/AP)
An American diplomat said that appointing Mohammed Bin Salman as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was like a “dream come true for Israel”, Haaretz reported.
The former US Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, said that the appointment of Bin Salman opens an unprecedented opportunity for Israel to improve its regional position and supports it in facing its strategic and security challenges.