Trump eases Qatar critique, offers to mediate Gulf spat
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has offered to personally broker a resolution to the Persian Gulf's escalating diplomatic crisis, as both he and Qatar looked past his pointed suggestion only a day earlier that the tiny gas-rich nation enables terrorism.
Though Trump again said countries must eliminate funding streams for terror groups, the White House said he focused on the need for the region's various U.S. allies to stick together.
Trump's bid to fashion himself as a neutral arbiter among Arab governments departed from his stance only a day earlier, when he left little doubt about where he felt the fault rested.
Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates joined the Saudis earlier this week in cutting diplomatic ties to Qatar, accusing it of backing groups from al-Qaida and Hamas to the Muslim Brotherhood that threaten the region's other governments.
On the call, he reiterated "the importance of maintaining a united Gulf Cooperation Council to promote regional stability, but never at the expense of eliminating funding for radical extremism or defeating terrorism," the White House said in a statement.
[...] in Germany, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer pointed out that Trump's words differed substantially from those of State Department and Pentagon officials.
[...] a State Department official said an approved but pending sale of F-15 fighter planes to Qatar hasn't been affected.