Trump: Persian Gulf crisis can be 'solved pretty quickly'

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar and imposed a land, air and sea blockade on it, accusing Doha of supporting “terrorism.” Qatar has strongly and repeatedly denied the allegation, aljazeera.com reported.

The US president said after Tuesday’s meeting that he believed the dispute could be solved quickly.

“We are right now in a situation where we are trying to solve a problem in the Middle East and I think we will get it solved. I have a very strong feeling that it will be solved pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters. 

Qatar is home to the largest US military base in the Middle East.

Trump had initially sided with the Saudi-led group and called Qatar a “funder of terrorism.” Yet, some other US officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, adopted a more measured tone.

Over the past few weeks, Trump has also worked to broker a way out of the dispute, and in his meeting with Sheikh Tamim, he made no mention of his past claim that Qatar was funding “terrorism.”

Earlier on Tuesday, in his address to the UN General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim criticized the countries behind the blockade on Qatar.

“The countries which imposed the blockade on the state of Qatar interfere in the internal affairs of many countries; they accuse all those who oppose them, domestically and abroad, with terrorism. By doing so, they are inflicting damage on the war on terror,” he said.