United States President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Tuesday amid the Gulf's deepening diplomatic rift with Qatar, and called for a united Gulf Cooperation Council to fight terrorism and promote stability in the region.
The UAE, Yemen and Egypt on Monday announced that they will be joining Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar. The nations said that their decision was based on the claims that Qatar supported Islamist groups and associated with terrorism.
Trump, in a tweet on early Tuesday morning, appeared to support the Gulf nations' decision to sever ties with Qatar.
"So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding, extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
Shortly after Trump's tweet, the White House released a statement saying that the US President and King Salman discussed ways to prevent terror financing and eliminate extremism in any country in the region. Trump, during the phone call, said that a United Gulf Cooperation Council is critical to defeat terrorism and promote regional stability, the White House added.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the US continues to be in close communication with all the parties involved in the rift to resolve the issues and restore cooperation in the region.
"I think there is note that his message of toughness on terror finance and extremism is being heeded by countries in the region. But the US still wants to see this issue de-escalated and resolved immediately, keeping with the principles that the president laid out in terms of defeating terror financing and extremism," Spicer said, according to PTI.
Spicer added that Trump had a very, very constructive conversation with the Emir of Qatar in Riyadh during his visit.
"At that time, he was very heartened by the Emir's commitment to formally join the terrorist financing targeting centre and showing their commitment to this issue," he said.
The State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, in a separate briefing, said that the US recognises that Qatar has made some great efforts to try to stop financing of terror groups,. The official said that the country has assisted in prosecuting suspected financiers, freezing assets, and introducing stringent controls on its banking system there to curb terrorism.
"However, let me make this clear: They have made progress, but they still have work to do. More work needs to be done," she said.
"I think our relationship with Qatar is one that's strong. It's one that we continue to cooperate with Qatar and other countries in the region in the fight against terrorism. Secretary of State Rex W Tillerson talked about this today," she added. "He said every country in the region has their own obligations and they need to live up to terminate their support for terrorism and extremism however it manifests itself anywhere in the world," Nauert added.
