Donald Trump flip-flop on Qatar

This video says about itself:

Trump Pitches “Lots Of Beautiful Military Equipment” To Emir of Qatar

21 May 2017

President Donald Trump meets with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Trump says they have been friends for a long time and then says they are discussing Qatar buying “lots of beautiful military equipment because nobody makes it like the United States.”

That was two weeks ago. Apparently, two very long weeks.

First, there was Donald Trump‘s flip-flop on Saudi Arabia. From naming some of the issues of the Saudi absolute monarchy while debating Hillary Clinton to denial of these issues while selling lots of weapons for killing Yemeni civilians to the dictatorship.

Now, today, there is Trump‘s flip-flop on the smaller absolute monarchy Qatar.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Trump: Boycott of Qatar is a follow up to my visit to the Middle East

Today, 17:14

President Trump welcomes the boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East. In a series of tweets, he says that his recent visit to the region has already paid off.

Trump was in Riyadh last month and spoke with several regional leaders. He was told there, he says, that the countries would follow a hard line against financing extremism: “Leaders pointed to Qatar – look! … all reference was pointing to Qatar.“

Only some of the reference points to Qatar. Other reference points to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc.

In his tweets, Trump expressed the hope that the measures against Qatar mean the end of terrorism.

During his visit to Riyadh, Trump also had a meeting with the emir of Qatar. “We are friends, we’ve been friends now for a long time, haven’t we?” said Trump. “Our relationship is extremely good.” Whether this has changed now, the American president does not say.

Air Force base

Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, is a major ally of Washington. The US has a major military base in Qatar, with about 11,000 US military personnel. From Qatar air operations are being undertaken throughout the region, including to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. …

Food imports

Not only diplomatic relations have been broken, countries have also stopped all land and air traffic and told their subjects to leave Qatar.

Only Egypt is an exception to the last point.

contrary to an earlier report

There are about 250,000 Egyptians working in Qatar. The boycott has led to a crisis situation in Qatar, which is heavily dependent on food imports.

How Trump Made the Qatar Situation Worse: here.

If the Saudi etc. vs. Qatar crisis would escalate further, then there would be, apart from the Saudi-Yemeni war also a Saudi-Qatari war; in which both sides would kill each other with the ‘beautiful military equipment‘ sold to them by Trump. Probably, Trump personally would profit from that.

IN QATAR CRISIS, TRUMP SHOWS DISREGARD FOR ALLIES President Donald Trump tweeted support for the condemnation of Qatar by several of its Middle Eastern neighbors. Qatar is a longtime U.S. ally and home to a major U.S. military base, and the Pentagon is already distancing itself from the president’s remarks. [HuffPost]

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