WASHINGTON _ In a potential breakthrough to a crisis roiling the Persian Gulf, the United States announced Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with Qatar to fight terrorism and eliminate money for terror groups.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the "memorandum of understanding" was weeks in the making and set out steps both countries would take to "interrupt and disable" the flow of terror financing and "intensify counterterrorism activities" globally.
"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," Tillerson said.
He was speaking in the Qatari capital of Doha, part of a shuttle diplomacy Tillerson launched this week to attempt to end a volatile crisis between Qatar and several of its gulf neighbors and other Arab states.
Both Tillerson and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, who appeared together at a brief news conference, sought to downplay expectations that the deal would ease the broader crisis.
However, it will probably put pressure on the other countries to follow suit in formally committing to the counterterrorism plan.
Accusations that Qatar is soft on terrorism have been the basis for steps by a Saudi-led coalition to punish the tiny gas-rich emirate. The other countries have suspended diplomatic ties with Qatar and blockaded its land and sea borders, leading to severe hardships in the emirate, officials there say.
The foreign minister said that while the bilateral U.S.-Qatari agreement was unrelated to the broader crisis, he invited other countries to sign similar pacts. And Tillerson lauded Qatar for being "the first" of the Arab states to formally join.
"(B)lockading countries have accused Qatar of financing terrorism," the Qatari foreign minister said. "Now the state of Qatar is the first country to sign this memorandum of understanding with the United States. We invite the other blockading countries to join signing this understanding."
Tillerson returned to Kuwait City later Tuesday and is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
