WASHINGTON — The crisis in the Middle East centered on Qatar took another bizarre turn Friday night as Qatar’s ambassador to the United States, Meshal Hamad Al Thani, unleashed a series of tweets seemingly responding to statements President Donald Trump made earlier in the day.
In a press conference Friday afternoon at the White House, Trump called out Qatar for being “a funder of terrorism, and at a very high level.”
Those statements came just a few hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to end a blockade on Qatar that began on Monday when several countries severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and closed their borders to the tiny Arab country.
On Tuesday, Trump seemed to take credit for the blockade.
So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017
…extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017
Qatar is the site of the Al Udeid Air Base which is home to more than 11,000 U.S. military personnel and has been used in launching airstrikes against ISIS targets.
