Was there a potential Saudi invasion of Qatar in 2017? This needs more investigation and confirmation, but the Saudi/UAE blockade of Qatar already was the brink of war. Did Saudi and UAE think they had a green light b/c they had secret dealings with Trump and Russia? 1/
2/ Here is some key background from @adamentous on the "Grand Bargain", involving Erik Prince and the Seychelles meeting:
Saudi/UAE wanted Russia and Iran out of Syria.
In return, Russia would get to keep Crimea, while Trump would lift Russia sanctions.
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
Saudi/UAE wanted Russia and Iran out of Syria.
In return, Russia would get to keep Crimea, while Trump would lift Russia sanctions.
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
3/ Saudi and UAE see Iran as a dire threat. They believed Qatar had gotten too close to Iran. A crisis escalated. An unresolved question: Was Qatar also involved with Trump/Russia? Had they backed out of a deal?
My @slate piece from March on Kushner/Qatar: slate.com/news-and-polit…
My @slate piece from March on Kushner/Qatar: slate.com/news-and-polit…
4/ I put together a timeline from public sources on the possibility that Qatar was the intermediary in the Steele Dossier's alleged Russia/Trump/Rosneft deal. Qatar was Rosneft buyer in Dec. 2016, with some very suspicious timing of other meetings. shugerblog.com/2018/05/14/rus…
@joshtpm offers a Manafort link: "Barrack is tied to...the Gulf states part of the collusion investigation (Nader, Broidy, UAE, Saudi). Notably, this is how Barrack and Manafort met too. They both worked in Saudi in the 1970s, something I’d never known." talkingpointsmemo.com/prime-beta/fol…
And breaking today on Michael Cohen, here's another crazy connection to Qatar from April 2017. Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani was in Trump Tower in Dec. 12, 2016, right after the Rosneft purchase.
