In case you missed it late Sunday night Egypt, the United Arab Emirites, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bahrain all cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. The decision came after the officials from the Arab countries concluded the Qatar government has been funding terrorist organizations in Yemen, Syria and bolstering terrorist organizations working for Iran. There are also questions over the government's support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
"(Qatar) embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly," Saudi state news agency SPA said.
It accused Qatar of supporting what it described as Iranian-backed militants in its restive and largely Shi'ite Muslim-populated eastern region of Qatif and in Bahrain.
A quick trip down memory lane reminds us that 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton raked in $1 million from Qatar for the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State. From Reuters:
The Clinton Foundation has confirmed it accepted a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state without informing the State Department, even though she had promised to let the agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign governments.
Qatari officials pledged the money in 2011 to mark the 65th birthday of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband, and sought to meet the former U.S. president in person the following year to present him the check, according to an email from a foundation official to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta. The email, among thousands hacked from Podesta's account, was published last month by WikiLeaks.
But $1 million for Clinton is nothing compared to former Vice President Al Gore, who sold his Current TV network to Al Jazeera in 2013 for $100 million. Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government.
Former Vice President Al Gore has made himself a much, much richer man by selling his little watched cable channel Current TV to the Emir of Qatar-funded Arab news channel Al-Jazeera.
Gore netted $100 million with his 20 percent stake in the network when it was sold for a reported $500 million on Wednesday.
Iran is blaming the crackdown on President Trump's recent foreign trip, where he argued Arab countries needed to drive out extremism.