Qatar row: Trump wades into Gulf stand-off
Source: BBC News
33 minutes ago
US President Donald Trump has said he was told during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia that neighbouring Qatar was funding "radical ideology".
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives have all cut diplomatic and other ties with Qatar.
They accuse it of supporting terrorism in the Gulf region.
Analysts say the timing of the move, two weeks after a visit to Saudi Arabia by Mr Trump, is crucial.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40175935
Eugene
(61,938 posts)9 minutes ago Middle East
US President Donald Trump has claimed credit for the pressure being placed on Qatar by Gulf neighbours who accuse it of supporting terrorism in the region.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40175935
Trump is an arsonist.
IronLionZion
(45,514 posts)Most of the countries are definitely supporting terror and think we're fooled by this diversion.
This is about the Yemeni civil war. Iran and Saudi are fighting a proxy war there. Qatar decided to continue ties with Iran and are being punished.
The US has bases and troops there and it's the headquarters of USCENTCOM. Many US operations are launched out of Qatar.
He wants them to respond to his provocation by attacking our troops. I hope they don't take the bait.
IronLionZion
(45,514 posts)It's a major hub for travel between DC and the Middle East and South Asia. The flights are always full of military people and their families.
The_jackalope
(1,660 posts)iluvtennis
(19,868 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,355 posts)"The sprawling base 20 miles southwest of the Qatari capital of Doha is home to some 11,000 US military personnel.
The base, which boasts one of the longest runways in the Persian Gulf at 12,500 feet, is a strategically important facility that can accommodate up to 120 aircraft.
In 2016, the base was used as staging ground to fly B-52 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria. Early in the Afghanistan campaign, F-16 fighters and E-8C Joint Stars reconnaissance planes that monitor ground units were based there, along with refueling tankers.
...
The Combined Air and Space Operations Center (CAOC) oversees US military air power in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and 18 other nations, according to the Air Force."
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/05/middleeast/qatar-us-largest-base-in-mideast/
I bet the Pentagon is just delighted with Trump ...
WePurrsevere
(24,259 posts)His ignorance, lack of diplomacy and ego are frightening. I'm sure the Pentagon is not at all impressed with the danger he just put our troops in.
dembotoz
(16,826 posts)On the wrong side again?
DavidDvorkin
(19,483 posts)moondust
(20,002 posts)is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH too complex for TheRump to be "wading into" to try to score political points or for any other reason. If we're extraordinarily lucky he will sit back and do what the commanders tell him to do and shut up about it.
I have a young relative who was deployed to Qatar early this year. The reality that Trumpelthinskin is the CinC is very disturbing.
Strelnikov_
(7,772 posts)As of 2015, some 10,000 US troops were stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base."
AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)the diplomatic issue with Qatar was apparently spurred by a fake news story planted by the Russians in Qatari media. Agent Orange strikes again:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141792923
OnDoutside
(19,969 posts)trailergold
(3 posts)It would be nice if Trump weighed into intelligence.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,355 posts)"Trump later spoke by phone with Saudi King Salman and stressed the need for Gulf unity, a senior White House official said.
"His (Trump's) message was that we need unity in the region to fight extremist ideology and terrorist financing. It's important that the Gulf be united for peace and security in the region," the senior official told Reuters.
U.S. officials were blindsided by Saudi Arabia's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar in a coordinated move with Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), current and former officials in Washington told Reuters. The United States was not informed of the decision until just before it was announced, the State Department said."
http://fortune.com/2017/06/07/trump-qatar-saudi-arabia/
"Unity" over what? Over keeping the GCC together, or isolating Qatar? Trump has left his lackeys out to dry again, as they struggle to justify his random ejaculations:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/jun/07/sean-spicer-defends-donald-trumps-qatar-tweets-video
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/06/donald-trump-qatar-tweets-us-diplomatic-damage
I confidently predict Trump will have made things worse within 6 hours from now.
nitpicker
(7,153 posts)President Trump took to Twitter Tuesday morning and attacked a country that hosts the beating heart of his quest to crush the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, leaving national security experts stunned and wondering what impact his words would have on the U.S. military's presence in the Middle East.
In the wake of a massive rift in relations between Qatar and its neighbors, Trump took to Twitter and strongly implied that Qatar was funding Islamist extremists and seemed to take credit for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates all breaking off diplomatic relations with Doha on Monday. The nations claimed to take the action because Qatar was funding the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State. Libya, Yemen and Maldives have all since joined the Gulf states.
During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology, Trump tweeted. Leaders pointed to Qatar look!" He later tweeted that it was, "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 extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!"
The comments from the president immediately raised the stakes for a major U.S. hub in the region at Al-Udeid Air Base, a central part of the U.S. air war in Iraq and Syria, and which houses 10,000 American troops and aircraft such as B-52 Stratofortresses, C-130 Hercules, KC-135 Stratotankers and E-8 JSTARS. Some worried that his taking sides could precipitate a break with Qatar and leave the U.S. looking for a new place to run the war from in a region mired in tensions.
It is hard to overstate how crucial Al-Udeid is to the coalitions war against the Islamic State. It is the home of U.S. Central Command's forward headquarters, as well as the Combined Air Operations Center, which the Air Force has repeatedly called the nerve center of the air campaigns it wages in the Middle East. The CAOC provides command and control of U.S. and allied nations air power over 20 nations there, including Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Many national security experts were shocked that Trump would weigh in on the rift, especially since only the day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called on all sides to resolve the feud peacefully. In an email, Peter Singer, an analyst with the New America Foundation, blasted Trumps decision to weigh in on the Qatar rift.
(snip)