Trump berates Qatar as Gulf feud escalates, Russia calls for dialogue

President Donald Trump has accused Qatar’s leadership of bankrolling extremists and demanded a halt to that funding, drawing praise Saturday from Saudi Arabia and its allies.
Their approval came as Washington joined international efforts to heal the rift between the key Western Gulf allies, which has escalated into the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.
Russia on Saturday urged dialogue between the parties, as Qatar’s foreign minister arrived in Moscow seeking support from abroad in the dispute.
Trump’s warning overshadowed an earlier declaration from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who encouraged Saudi Arabia and its allies to ease their land and sea “blockade” of Qatar.
Tillerson said the blockade was hindering the US-led campaign against the Islamic State and having humanitarian consequences for ordinary people.
But US officials insisted both men were sending the same message that the countries of the region should not allow their differences to hinder the fight against extremism.
Qatar is home to the largest US airbase in the Middle East, making it a key ally in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.
But it has fallen out with its Arab neighbours, who accuse it of sponsoring extremist groups, some of them allegedly linked to arch Saudi foe Iran.
They also resent Qatar’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its sponsorship of the pan-Arab satellite television network Al-Jazeera, which has given opposition figures a platform.
Qatar has denounced the allegations of terror funding as baseless and has received the support of its close ally Turkey, which has approved the deployment of troops to defend the emirate.AFP
Punching back a day after his fired FBI director’s damaging testimony, US President Donald Trump on Friday accused James Comey of lying to Congress and said he was “100%” willing to testify under oath about their conversations.
Trump cryptically refused to say whether those private exchanges were taped — a matter at the heart of the conflicting accounts of what passed between them at a time when Comey was leading an FBI investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and its ties to the Trump campaign.
He asserted that nothing in Comey’s testimony to the Senate pointed to collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. “Yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction,” Trump said.
He further denied ever asking Comey for his “loyalty,” contradicting Comey’s detailed sworn testimony about a private dinner the two men had in the White House.
“No I didn’t say that,” Trump stated abruptly, taking questions at a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Rose Garden. Asked if he would make that denial under oath, he said: “100 %.”
Trump’s aides have dodged questions about whether conversations relevant to the Russia investigation have been recorded, and so did the president, in series of teases.
“Well, I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future,” Trump said. Pressed on the issue, he insisted he wasn’t “hinting anything,” before adding: “Oh you’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don’t worry.”
The House intelligence committee sent a letter Friday asking White House counsel Don McGahn whether any tape recordings or memos of Comey’s conversations with the president exist now or had existed in the past. The committee also sent a letter to Comey asking for any notes or memos in his possession about the discussions he had with Trump before being abruptly fired last month. The committee is seeking the materials by June 23.
NEW CUBA POLICY TO BE UNVEILED SOON
Trump is expected to visit Miami as early as next Friday to announce a new Cuba policy that could tighten rules on trade and travel, rolling back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to the island, according to a U.S. official and people familiar with the matter.