Turkey's parliament is expected to fast-track a draft bill on Wednesday that would allow its troops to be deployed to a Turkish military base in Qatar, Reuters reported. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his country's solidarity with Qatar amid the current crisis with some Gulf states. Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that the country's airspace was closed to Qatari flights at 04.00am GMT on Tuesday, after the last tensions between Doha on one side and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain on the other. On Monday morning, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya's eastern-based government, in addition to the Maldives, cut their ties with the State of Qatar. The six Arab governments accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, disturbing security and stability in the region, and supporting Iran. KSA: Doha has to cut ties with Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Tuesday that Qatar has to cut its ties with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and stop supporting this "terrorist groups," before it can restore ties with the other Arab Gulf states. Al-Jubeir claimed that Qatar was undermining the Palestinian Authority and Egypt with its support of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified as a terrorist group by the Egyptian authorities. During his visit to Paris, Al-Jubeir stated that Arab Gulf states want to see Qatar implementing the promises it had made a few years back with regard to its support of extremist groups, to its hostile media and interference in affairs of other countries. "Nobody wants to hurt Qatar. Qatar has to stop these policies so that it can contribute to stability in the Middle East," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister added. Trump welcomes measures In spite of statements from the United States military and ministry of foreign affairs, which support Qatar and asserting the strength of ties between Doha and Washington, US president Donald Trump expressed his welcome to the Gulf measures against the state that hosts the largest US airbase in the Middle East. President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that "during my recent trip to the Middle East, I stated that there can no longer be funding of radical ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar—look!" "So good to see that the Saudi Arabian visit and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar." He added that "perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" president Trump added. Continued on page 7
