Al Jazeera News :
Qatar and the United States have signed an agreement to help combat “terrorism financing” around the world.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the announcement on Tuesday during a joint press conference in the Qatari capital. Tillerson is in Doha pushing for dialogue to resolve the dispute between Qatar and its neighbouring Gulf countries.
“Today, Qatar is the first country to sign a memorandum of agreement with the US, and we call on the countries imposing the siege against Qatar to join us as signatories to this MOU,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
He added that the signing was “not related to the recent crisis and the blockade imposed against Qatar”.
Tillerson praised Qatar for signing the deal, and for committing to the effort “to track down and disable terror financing”.
“The US has one goal: To drive terrorism off the face of the Earth,” Tillerson said. “Together the United States and Qatar will do more to track down funding sources, will do more to collaborate and share information, and will do more to keep the region and our homeland safe.”
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates accuse Doha of funding what they call terrorism – something Qatar denies. The four countries cut ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the country.
Tillerson is on a four-day trip to the region to try and help find a solution to the crisis.
He declined to comment on timeline for resolving the dispute because discussions are ongoing.
On Wednesday, he will meet the foreign ministers of the four countries blockading nations in Jeddah.
“My role here is to support the efforts of the emir of Kuwait and the Kuwaiti mediator to bring what we can to the discussions to help both sides more fully understand the concerns of the relative parties and also point out possible solutions to those,” he said in Doha.
Kuwait is trying to mediate in the crisis.
“At least it looks as though we are at the beginning of rationalising the differences and hopefully this will lead to normalisation of relations and the end of the blockade,” Shafeeq Gabra, professor of political science at Kuwait University, told Al Jazeera.
