Free Republic

Arab anti-terror quartet extends Qatar boycott as Doha rejects demands CAIRO: Four Arab states calling for combating terrorism vowed Wednesday to maintain their boycott of Qatar, criticizing its “negative” response to their list of demands to end the diplomatic crisis. Doha’s response, they said, was “not serious” and betrayed Qatar’s “failure” to realize the gravity of the situation. The announcement followed a meeting by foreign ministers from the four nations — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain — in Cairo, shortly after they said they had received Doha’s reply. “The political and economic boycott will remain until Qatar changes...

Did Qatar’s FM just admit to Doha sponsoring terror? JEDDAH: Qatar’s foreign minister has admitted to Doha being on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism in the region. Speaking at a press conference in Rome on Saturday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said: “As for financing terrorism and what has been mentioned in the list of accusations — this issue exists in all countries in the region.” He did not deny the charge made against Qatar. He said that funding and sponsoring terror is a common issue in other countries in the Middle East and did not only...

At center of Qatar crisis, a $1 billion ransom The crisis over Qatar that is gripping the Middle East hinges on an alleged $1 billion ransom that was reportedly paid to release members of Qatar’s royal family and others who were kidnapped in Iraq. That payment appears to be the breaking point in the tense relationship between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries in the region, according to one report earlier this month. On Tuesday, the State Department said it was “mystified” that Gulf states had not given reasons for their decision to cut...

Here's why Rajeev Srinivasan believes there will be nothing particularly positive about the prime minister's US visit. IMAGE: The fact that it has taken this long for the US to extend an invitation to Narendra Modi suggests that India is not on Donald Trump's event horizon. Photographs: Peter Nicholls/Getty Images and Carlos Barria/Reuters Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not naive, so he is surely approaching his fifth visit to the United States, and his first meeting with US President Donald Trump with careful preparation. He is also deliberately creating low expectations. Unlike the hoopla of his previous Madison Square Gardens...

Wittes wrote on Twitter that the upcoming story could be published later Friday or on Monday. The heads-up comes a day after Trump revealed that he was bluffing last month when he suggested that he had recorded his conversations with Comey. May 16 appears to be his first time Wittes previewed Comey stories. Hours after Wittes posted the foreboding message that day, The Times published a shocking story: “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him To End Flynn Investigation.” The piece cited a memo that Comey filed just after a Feb. 14 meeting he had with Trump at the White House....

The latest development, in the ongoing Arab state GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) initiative to stem the destabilizing behavior of Qatar, is a list of demands presented to Qatar. If you have followed the regional issues for the past few years you’ll quickly identify how each of the demands cuts to the core of the destabilizing issues.... "Kuwait has given Qatar a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations that includes shutting down Al-Jazeera and cutting diplomatic ties to Iran. That’s according to a list obtained by The Associated Press from one of the countries involved in the...

Will Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ever be welcome in Washington again? Many US legislators would like to think he wouldn't dare come back after the horrid events of May 16, when his security detail attacked peaceful protesters. Just days later, a bipartisan House resolution was introduced to condemn Turkey and ask for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for Europe, said Erdogan "is an enemy of everything we stand for. … More importantly, he is an enemy of his own people.” These are some of the strongest words of public...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman made his son his successor on Wednesday, removing his nephew as crown prince and giving the 31-year old almost unprecedented powers as the world's leading oil exporter implements transformational reforms....It said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a counter-terrorism chief admired in Washington for putting down an al Qaeda campaign of bombings in 2003-06, was relieved of all positions. Although Mohammed bin Salman's promotion was expected among close circles it came as a surprise at a time the kingdom is facing heightened tensions with Qatar and Iran and is locked in a war in Yemen. ..."Some people...

Sunday, a Navy F-18 Hornet shot down a Syrian air force jet, an act of war against a nation with which Congress has never declared or authorized a war. Washington says the Syrian plane was bombing U.S.-backed rebels. Damascus says its plane was attacking ISIS. Vladimir Putin's defense ministry was direct and blunt: "Repeated combat actions by U.S. aviation under the cover of counterterrorism against lawful armed forces of a country that is a member of the U.N. are a massive violation of international law and de facto a military aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic." An ABC report appears...

Qatar has finally moved forward with a long-standing plan to buy advanced fighter jets from the United States. This comes amid a massive spat between the small country and Saudi Arabia that has spiraled into a huge political crisis throughout the Middle East and beyond. On June 14, 2017, Bloomberg News reported that the Qataris would sign a $12 billion deal to buy up to 36 F-15QA fighter jets from Boeing. The country’s Ministry of Defense later announced it had reached an agreement, which followed a meeting between Minister of State for Defense Affairs Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah...

The Egyptian president has called on allies in the Gulf to escalate the diplomatic row with Qatar to include Turkey, the New Arab reported. According to the news outlet, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi urged Gulf leaders to expand their boycott until Ankara gives up support for Qatar. He is reported to have said that this would maintain the pressure on Doha to respond positively and help bring a speedy end to the regional siege. The sources said that Al-Sisi raised the matter during a meeting with the King of Bahrain, Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, last Thursday in Cairo. They added...

The election of US President Donald Trump was neither a surprise nor an unpleasant event for Islamists in Turkey. To the contrary, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were making extra efforts to cheer for their newly elected American colleague. Erdogan’s 22-minute March meeting with Trump, despite being a fiasco on multiple fronts, was portrayed as the beginning of an affectionate personal relationship. Pro-AKP media refrained from using negative language against Trump. However, the tide took a stark turn with the Qatar crisis. As several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab...

QATAR IS LARGELY SUSPECTED TO BE THE FOREMOST STATE SUPPORTER OF ISIS. After taking credit for a Mideast-wide initiative to shine a light on the terror-supporting activities of the government of Qatar, President Donald Trump has done a dramatic reversal and will sell Doha up to 36 U.S. military jets. Bloomberg reported Wednesday afternoon that the Qatari defense minister will meet with Defense Secretary James Mattis at some point later that day to officially sign the agreement. On June 6, the president tweeted about Qatar’s support for terrorism: ***snip***see tweets at source Now, just over one week later, as evidenced...

The Jerusalem Post reports: In 2007, then-Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad told the US Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Stuart Levey that Qatar provides “more support to fundamentalists than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. Qatar was “willfully bad,” Fayyad said.

No leader in the region holds more anti-terrorism credibility than Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. President Sisi has challenged all Muslim leaders to denounce the hate within Islamic extremism and rise up to confront evil. Al-Sisi is a Muslim leader who steadfastly supports the entire Egyptian population regardless of their religious faith. Sisi has stood firm to support Christians in Egypt. WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump spoke today with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt. The two presidents agreed on the importance of all countries implementing the agreements reached in Riyadh to fight terrorism, counter extremism, and...

(Riyadh) Gulf states traded public barbs on Saturday, showing little sign of resolving the region's deepest rift in years, five days after Arab nations severed diplomatic, trade and transport ties with the tiny Gulf kingdom of Qatar. {snip} Qatar's foreign minister fired back that there was "no clarity" in such accusations, speaking in an interview with RT Arabic in Moscow after emerging from talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. [nL8N1J708I] "Qatar is accused of having a hidden relationship with Iran, but its relations with Iran are clear, transparent and time-tested," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, noting that the...

The government of Qatar has hired John Ashcroft, the U.S. attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks, as it seeks to rebut accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump and its Arab neighbors that it supports terrorism. Qatar will pay the Ashcroft Law Firm $2.5 million for a 90-day period as the country seeks to confirm its efforts to fight global terrorism and comply with financial regulations including U.S. Treasury rules, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, filing on Friday with the Justice Department. "The firm's work will include crisis response and management, program and system analysis, media...

The government of Qatar has hired John Ashcroft, the U.S. attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks, as it seeks to rebut accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump and its Arab neighbors that it supports terrorism. Qatar will pay the Ashcroft Law Firm $2.5 million for a 90-day period as the country seeks to confirm its efforts to fight global terrorism and comply with financial regulations including U.S. Treasury rules, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, filing on Friday with the Justice Department. "The firm's work will include crisis response and management, program and system analysis, media...

The government of Qatar has hired John Ashcroft, the U.S. attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks, as it seeks to rebut accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump and its Arab neighbors that it supports terrorism. Qatar will pay the Ashcroft Law Firm $2.5 million for a 90-day period as the country seeks to confirm its efforts to fight global terrorism and comply with financial regulations including U.S. Treasury rules, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, filing on Friday with the Justice Department.

Amir gives some background information on Qatar and why this conflict has arisen. His usual brilliant analysis that we find nowhere else. And of course his more general message to us in these troubled times.