Trump's national security adviser says ending Gulf rift 'priority'
Qatar has been under a land, sea and air blockade by four regional states since 2017.
Resolving the three-year-old blockade on Qatar by fellow Gulf states is a priority of the outgoing Donald Trump administration, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Monday.
“I would like to see that get done before — if we end up leaving office — I’d like to see that get done in the next 70 days. And I think there’s a possibility for it,” O’Brien said at the Soufan Center’s 2020 Global Security Forum.
Qatar remains under an air, land and sea blockade imposed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. The four countries severed ties with the tiny Gulf peninsula in the summer of 2017, prompting a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region.
The so-called Anti-Terror Quartet’s rivalry with Qatar stems in part from the country’s support for Islamists during the Arab Spring uprising; Doha’s relations with Iran, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood; and coverage on the Qatari-funded satellite news channel Al Jazeera.
