Donald Trump offers Rex Tillerson, Erdogan offers troops to Qatar
Washington/Istanbul — While President Donald Trump offered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to mediate the standoff between Qatar and the Saudi-led coalition, Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan has approved legislation to deploy troops in Qatar as it faces isolation imposed by fellow Arab states over its alleged support for terrorism. Turkey’s parliament pushed through the bill on Wednesday and Erdogan’s rapid approval of it, announced by his office late on Thursday, was followed by its publication in the Official Gazette on Friday, completing the legislative process. Meanwhile, the US State Department said Tillerson, who dealt with Qatari leaders for years as CEO of Exxon Mobil, was skilled at bringing people together and was ready to help if needed. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Trump would rather that all sides worked out the dispute among themselves. The announcement came after Trump met Tillerson and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis at the White House earlier on Thursday t...
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