US sends mixed signals over Saudi spat with Qatar

US President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have sent mixed signals over a rift between Qatar and its regional neighbors.

On Friday, Trump accused Qatar of funding terrorism, calling on the small Persian Gulf country to stop supporting terrorist activities.

"The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level," he said at a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Washington on Friday. "They have to end that funding."

His comments come shortly after Tillerson urged Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to ease their blockade of Qatar, saying it was causing unintended humanitarian consequences and affecting the so-called US-led fight against Daesh terrorists.

"We call on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to ease the blockade against Qatar," Tillerson said in a brief statement to reporters.

Qatar was subsequently expelled from a Saudi-led coalition, which has been conducting a military aggression against Yemen since March 2015.

Qatar, home to the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command and some 10,000 American troops, had assigned some of its US-provided fighter jets to the unprovoked war, which has killed over 12,000 Yemeni people while plunging the impoverished country into a humanitarian crisis.

Washington has been actively supporting the Saudi-led war, supplying weapons and intelligence to the aggressors under the guise of fighting terror.

SS