Trump willing to mediate Qatar crisis

Team Udayavani, Sep 8, 2017, 3:10 PM IST

Washington : US President Donald Trump has offered to mediate the crisis between Qatar and its Arab neighbours, saying their dispute could be solved “fairly easily”. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have accused Qatar of having ties with fundamentalist Islamist groups. In June, they announced they had cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar.

Qatar denies the accusations while Kuwait has emerged as a key mediator in the crisis. “I think there is a chance that there could be peace. But again, I say that a little bit reluctantly. We’re going to give it our best,” Trump told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Kuwait’s Emir Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah yesterday.

He said the dispute is something that’s going to get solved “fairly easily”. “We have tremendous talent working on that particular transaction. As you know, David Friedman, the ambassador, is very much involved. We have a great group of people. We’ll see what happens,” he said in response to a question.

He said Israel and Palestinian are discussing to resolve the dispute along with the US.
“They say it is the world’s most complex and difficult deal. You know that. But it is something that could happen. I believe that the relationships that we have with both can help. It’s an event that’s just never taken place,” he added. Responding to a question, Trump said he was willing to mediate between the disputing countries.

“I would be willing to be the mediator. I was telling the Emir before that if I can help between UAE and Saudi Arabia, where I have a very great relationship, I spoke with the King yesterday, King Salman, who is a friend of mine, and we spoke on unrelated subjects, but we had a long conversation,” he said.

“If I can help mediate between Qatar and, in particular, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, I would be willing to do so. And I think you’d have a deal worked out very quickly,” he added. The US president said the crisis began because of the fact that there has been massive funding of terrorism by certain countries and he wants to stop that.

“What I want is I want to stop the funding of terrorism, and we’re going to stop the funding of terrorism. And if they don’t stop the funding of terrorism, I don’t want them to come together. But I think they will,” Trump said. The Emir of Kuwait said the Gulf Countries have received a letter from Qatar stating that it is willing to sit down at the table and discuss all the demands, which the other parties have put down.

“We’re talking about 13 demands, and I’m certain that all these certain demands, a great part of them will be resolved and the other and perhaps, we might not accept them because anything that effects sovereignty we would not accept. But we are very hopeful. We have great hope in our friends in the US that they will assist them to restore things to where they used to be,” he said.