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Germany’s Gabriel Warns Qatar Crisis “Could Lead To War” As Qatar Emissary Flies To Moscow
Germany’s Gabriel Warns Qatar Crisis “Could Lead To War” As Qatar Emissary Flies To Moscow
Germany’s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel warned that the ongoing isolation of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and its allies could lead to a war in the Gulf region, according to an interview he gave to Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, although he added that he still saw a chance to defuse the tension.
“There is a danger that this dispute could lead to war,” Gabriel said citing what he called a “dramatic” harshness in relations between allied and neighbouring countries in the Gulf.
The foreign minister said personal talks this week with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, and phone calls with the foreign ministers of Iran and Kuwait underscored his concerns.
“After my talks this week, I know how serious the situation is, but I believe there are also good chances to make progress.”
Gabriel also said that he had a phone conversation with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the Gulf situation on Friday and said that Tillerson showed a “very wise and prudent attitude” that has contributed to calming the conflict.
Yet while Tillerson was “calming” the conflict, during a press conference on Friday Trump appeared to be adding fire to it, when the president accused Qatar of being a “high level” funder of terrorism even as the Pentagon and Tillerson cautioned against the military, commercial and humanitarian effects of a blockade imposed by Arab states and others.
As expected, on Saturday Saudi Arabia and Bahrain welcomed Trump’s demand for Qatar to stop supporting terrorism, but did not respond to a U.S. Department of State call for them to ease pressure on the Gulf state. After severing ties with Qatar on Monday, Saudi Arabia said it was committed to “decisive and swift action to cut off all funding sources for terrorism” in a statement carried by state news agency SPA, attributed to “an official source”.
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Merkel’s TTIP policy is ‘wrong:’ German Vice Chancellor criticizes US-EU free trade deal
Merkel’s TTIP policy is ‘wrong:’ German Vice Chancellor criticizes US-EU free trade deal
“It was wrong that, in the euphoria of [President Barack] Obama’s visit to Germany, the Chancellor said that we will be able to conclude negotiations under any circumstances by the end of this year – and that she recently repeated that statement,” Gabriel said in an interview to the German regional RND newspaper group, criticizing Merkel’s stance on negotiations concerning the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US.
Gabriel, who is the leader of Merkel’s German Social Democratic Party (SPD), also stressed that haste would lead to an unfavorable deal adding that he and his party will “never” agree to something they deem “bad.”
“The SPD will not to be part of a bad deal,” he said. “I will never approve an agreement that retains [the right for the companies to appeal to] nontransparent private commercial courts,” he stated, referring to the issue that the agreement would allow transnational corporations to challenge domestic laws and regulations in special tribunals thus potentially undermining national environmental and labor protections.
He also stressed that he would not approve any deal that envisages standards deemed lower than those included in the freshly-negotiated EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which has already been approved by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.
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