Trump meets regional and Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia: Can he say “counterterrorism” without biting his tongue?


Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : On day two of his visit to Saudi Arabia, U.S.-President Donald Trump has a number of individual meetings with several of the region’s political leaders and participate in a roundtable session of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Trump in Riyadh_Saudi Arabia_May 2017At the roundtable session of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), there will be exchanges of documents as well as discussions about financing of terrorism and counterterrorism. Rarely discussed and largely omitted from the public discourse is that there is a considerable divergence among individual GCC members and regional countries’ designation of organizations as terrorist organizations.

That said, Trump’s Deputy National Security Adviser Dina told reporters “It’s the — we hope — farthest reaching commitment to not finance terrorist organizations that Treasury will be monitoring with each of their counterparts. … The unique piece of it is that every single one of them are signatories on how they’re responsible and will actually prosecute the financing of terrorism, including individuals.”

Along with the U.S., the participants include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. To exemplify; Many of the organizations that find refuge or have official offices in Qatar – especially Muslim brotherhood linked organizations – are on the United Arab Emirates’ terrorism list and also outlawed in Egypt.

The White House did not immediately release a text of the agreement and it is highly improbable that the full agreement – that deals with highly sensitive and classified as well as incriminating issues – will ever be published. What media and the general public are being fed are small soundbites – like “Trump and the GCC leaders watched as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson exchanged documents” – following the motto “The fewer details the better it sounds and the less embarrassing it will be”.

Speaking to the press on Sunday, Trump also said he would accept an invitation made by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to visit Egypt. Trump said the visit would happen before long – and Al-Sisi would probably have his own laundry list of terrorist organizations to give to Trump – organizations that are operating in the United States included.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday Trump didn’t really say much except Twitter-friendly sound-bites appropriate for a public whose political sophistication has been watered down to what one would expect people who suffer from severe attention deficit can grasp. Trump said:

“We’ve really been through a lot together, very positive … helped us so much with (aid worker) Aya (Hijazi), the release of Aya. … We have some very important talks going on with Egypt. And you have done a tremendous job under very trying circumstances and safety seems to be very strong.”

Al-Sisi responded “It would be a great privilege if you would visit us in Egypt. … Egypt is doing very well with the support of the United States. We are looking forward to further cooperation for the stability for this important part of the world. … You have a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible.”

Al-Sisi_Egypt_NEO_BWAnd those whose political attention span is longer than that of those who are suffering from propaganda-induced attention deficit, may recall that then General Al-Sisi, not long after he came to power in a people-powered military coup, told journalist  Larry Weissman in a 2013 interview:

“The people of Egypt are aware of the fact that the USA has stabbed Egypt in the back with the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi. It is nothing that Egypt will easily forget, or forgive”.

At his first meeting, with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Trumpsaid there had been problems with the relationship between the two countries under previous U.S. administrations. There “has been a little strain but there won’t be strain with this administration,” Trump said.

He next met with the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. With Trump were Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell.

Trump will also address leaders of 50 Muslim-majority countries. In that speech, he will urge them to “drive out the terrorists from your places of worship” focusing on “battle between good and evil,” in an address that will be perfect for public consumption and probably make it difficult for those leaders who are privies to actual intelligence  on terrorism and state sponsorship of terrorism – Trump included – not to burst out in laughter as long as the cameras and microphones of nosy journalists are turned on.

CH/L – nsnbc 21.05.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/05/21/trump-meets-regional-and-muslim-leaders-in-saudi-arabia-can-he-say-counterterrorism-without-biting-his-tongue/

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