Senator Puts Hold on Arms Sales to Persian Gulf Nations Over Qatar Feud
Corker said that Before we provide any further clearances during the informal review period on sales of lethal military equipment,
By ERIC SCHMITTJUNE 26, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Monday
that he was putting a hold on any future American arms sales to a group of Persian Gulf nations in an apparent move to help resolve a bitter dispute between one of those countries, Qatar, and several of its Arab neighbors.
In an unusual letter to Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who heads the committee, said he would refuse to consent
to weapons sales to the gulf nations until the feuding countries worked to end one of the worst political crises among Arab gulf states in years.
Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries, including Egypt,
that recently cut diplomatic ties with Qatar issued a harsh list of demands on Friday, insisting that the wealthy but tiny gulf nation shut down the news network Al Jazeera, abandon ties with Islamist organizations and provide detailed information about its funding for political dissidents.
Since then, Mr. Tillerson has tried to help mediate the deepening crisis but has signaled increasing exasperation with the Saudi-led group, first for enforcing a two-week embargo against Qatar without giving the tiny country any specific ways to resolve a dispute, and then on Sunday, after demands were issued, saying
that many of them "will be very difficult for Qatar to meet." Mr. Tillerson’s efforts seemed to put him at odds with President Trump about who is to blame.
The demands, presented to Qatar through mediators from Kuwait, risked pulling other powers deeper into the rift by calling on Qatar to close a Turkish military base and to downgrade its ties with Iran — an onerous task given
that Iran and Qatar share a large gas field that provides much of Qatar’s wealth.
