there's none in egypt right now.though people try they are picked up and arrested. >> many comedians. >> many comedians here they tell a lot of political jokes and others get involved in the political process. where do you find that an wordy you find yourself getting involved in egypt politics? >> no. personally i would not choose to be involved in politics. i cannot even imagine myself. i've suffered enough sena said tyrus, i cannot imagine myself being in the political fight. it's horrible, dirty, and your family gets more affected when that happens. five years ago i do not think but i would prefer that comedians would stay in their own zone. somebody like al franken made the switch and he became a full-time politician. it's different for each one. >> to have any advice for egypt now and i'm asking because right now in egypt there is but a wave of depression, their letdown from the revolution. that unofficial fight the government had honor should receive positions from within to change over time? she would leave it

so they deliver the news to egypt. and egypt already was hearing from the syrians that israel is playing a role against -- well, the syrians are known for crying wolf, so they don't believe them, but now they have the corroboration from moscow. so that looks reliable. and on top of that, i said the political situation in egypt was pretty tense. nasser has to take into consideration the option that if he won't allow his chief of staff to deploy egyptian troops in sinai, there might be a coup. it was a possibility. and that's the story about how this intelligence alert came to be, and this is why egypt made a major error of judgment in getting involved in all of this. they thought they will bluff their way through this crisis. and then, and then things started to be more and more complicated for them. they didn't back down. factions in the kremlin. basically, it's a faction led by alexei -- [inaudible] those are the moderates. he represents the kind of civilian indiligent ya -- intelligentsia, the people who run factorie

when we come back, what is happening in egypt.he number of men who are facing execution this week and other issues. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman and juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to egypt where seven men are facing imminent execution based on confessions that human rights activists say were extracted under torture. six of the men are recent college graduates who were arrested in 2014, along with more than a dozen others. while their testimony was captured on camera, the men say they were beaten, shocked with electricity, and hung in painful positions, and then provided with written testimonies they were forced to read. they were sentenced to death last month on terrorism charges after a military trial. human rights activists are now demanding a presidential pardon to save the men from execution. egypt's highest appeals court upheld the death sentences. on saturday, a cairo criminal court recommended the death penalty for an additional 30 p

they deliver it to the news and egypt and egypt was already hearing from the syrians that israelis wasplanning a war against. the syrians are known for crying wolf. we don't believe them but now they have a cooperation for moscow. so that was reliable and on top of that the political system in egypt was pretty tense. nasser had to take consideration the option that if he won't allow his chief of staff to deploy egyptian troops in sinai there might be a clue. it was a possibility. that's the story of how this intelligence alerts came to be and this is why egypt made a major erroofudgment in tting volved in all of this. they thought they would puff their way to this crisis. then things started to be more and more complicated for them and they didn't back down. factions in the kremlin. basically, it was a faction led by. [inaudible] he was a moderate. he represents the kind of civilian intelligence that the people who are run factories, the people who are on the ministry and they didn't want war in the middle east and he felt an important role in the story because he's the only person to

and the soviets by that peers they deliver the news to egypt. in egypt already was hearing from the syrians that israelis playing a war against them. syrians are four crying wolf. so they don't believe them but now they have a corroboration from moscow. so that looks reliable. and on top of that i said the political situation was pretty tense. they have to take into consideration the option that if it won't allow the chief of staff to deploy egyptian troops in sinai. it was a possibility. that is the story about how this intelligence alert came to be. and this is why egypt made a major error of judgment in getting involved in all of this. they thought they would lock their way through the crisis. and then, and then things just started to be more and more complicated for them. they did not back down. factions in the kremlin. basically that's a faction led by - he represents a kind of civilian intelligence of people who run factories, the people who run the ministries and they don't want war in the middle east. and they fulfill it important role i

britain, france and israel teamed up against egypt. defeated the egyptian army but the superpowers got involved and the united states in particular forced the israelis out -- occupied the sinai. they forced them out with minimal concessions. the concessions being the ones that nassar overturned in '67. meaning the placement of the united nations emergency force in sinai and guarantees shipping in the straits of teheran. so, i think that's the key. that's the world in which -- that was nassar's greatest moment. the rise of nassar as a kind of unstoppable political force in the arab world was 1956. america handed him this incredible political victory. and so, i think in '67 he thought he could replay '56. he thought that he could -- he could escalate things to such a point that even if there was a conflict with israel, he would -- a conflict he might not win on the ground. he bouwould still come out the political winner. so, his major miscalculation, he made two major miscalculations of '67. one of them clearly was the military miscalcul

the crisis was set in motion by egypt and its president. egypt reached used its army into -- and demanded and received a withdrawal of the u.s. force. it moved closer to the israeli force. -- and demanded andhe did forme with syria which had a lot to do with the instigation of the crisis and a completely bogus claim. joined they, jordan alliance, placing its army under egyptian command. this was a painful blow. jordan rolled what is today over the west bank. location meant in some places in central israel, it was only nine miles. it could severlocation israel ad destroyed the coastal cities. in the event that attack came. it was now complete as it has been in 48. it was electrified by the new war. many countries rushed to join. especially iraq, into jordan. also a final fateful step ran.ing the steps of teh this was tantamount to the declaration of war. confidence that he would win. his goal was feted by the president. "our goal is clear. ipe israel off the face of the map. we shall meet in tel aviv." such division was repeated over and ove

we went to egypt, we met with--u little did i imagine that we would be looking at a threat environment where iraq was a failed state with isis, that syria was a failed state, that libya would be a failed state, that egypt would lose control of

is a medium-term investment story in the case of egypt. has to do with the inefficiencies of the distribution system. in food prices from the production space at the farms to getting it into the shops and two households. a lot of investment is needed. improvement in getting food and other products to the market. for these areas you do need investment. investment in egypt has been low over the last year and is not kept up. , they have hoping tackled the first part of mod the capital inflows and the ability for the government to meet its deficit. we are not concerned anymore about meeting external funding. the next stage will be to boost economic activity, to create jobs, to improve the structure of the economy. ef: coming up, how much longer can the south african president hang onto his job? this is bloomberg. ♪ yousef: welcome back. the south african president survived a bid to oust them but will show he is hanging on by a thread. the latest survey says his popularity with voters and his own party has reached an all-time low. seen calls to

that's egypt and jordan. all these peace process stuff is backwards, it seems to me, asking israel to do a variety of things in order to induce the arabs, to give it peace when 242 says the opposite, you have to give, and then you make boundaries. so i wonder if you want to end the '67 war, which really hasn't ended, don't you have to go back to 242? >> mike, since you raised the issue -- first of all, it's a very interesting idea that the '67 war hasn't ended. >> i see a little differently. i don't think the '48 war has ended. >> is 1987 over? it's too early to tell. >> i mean there's an effort to define, if i understand you correctly, there's an effort to define the conflict in a very specific way. and there are a lot of people who for a whole host of reasons, some of which included they really see it that way, i'm talking in the arab world they actually see it that way. but then there are a lot of others who don't. you only need to listen to what the iranians say or what the syrians say or hezbollah says t

mike is correct in saying the crucial factor here was egypt. i think it probably traces the source of nasser's approach to what had happened in 1956 or in 1948, he was a soldier that was captured by the israeli army. i'm less sure that he did not think that the the egyptian army, and the arab forces in general, could win. i mean, he no doubt was not completely unaware of some of -- difficulties, but i think his confidence, the confidence he had came from the way in which what was wrong about israel in the first place. i referred before to the shame of 1948. 1948 was that jews had beaten arabs and muslims. that seemed at first impossible. away twice,ined first in 1948 the same thing happened and 56. that argument was made -- and persuaded them. they had never faced a fair fight. he did, they could take them, or not -- are fighters. so whatever reservations he had stashed things went on in the crisis during the three weeks, everything inspired through -- give him confidence -- further confidence. everyone is backing off. -- the defeat, first of a

and egypt is one of our key allies.ary forces that were not given a chance. the elections in egypt were not fair. the muslim brotherhood were there for 1,800 years. when you supported them, they did not abide by the democratic rules that brought them to power. maria: would you invest in the united states right now? naguid sawiris: of course it's the best time to invest in the united states with aside like that who will open doors and encourage private sector entrepreneurs and reduce the taxes and stop the excessiveness of all the environment issues. there is a limit to where we go. we need to provide jobs. you can't provide these jobs and move on anything. you know. so i believe in that. i am a capitalist. maria: we are happy you joined me today. we appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us. we'll be watching the ♪you may say i'm a dreamer ♪but i'm not the only one ♪i hope some day you'll join us♪ ♪and the world will be as one ♪imagine no possessions ♪i wonder if you can ♪no need for greed

egypt was a part of this isolate qatar.learly, the muslim brotherhood has a conflict with the government. the muslim brotherhood is in jordan. some. countries -- they say qatar supports,. hamas. and say qatar supports iran some behaviors they don't approve of. those are just some of the items they listed as to why you are not on board with isolating iran, and on board with supporting terrorism. sheikh hamad al-thani: who is isolating iran in the gulf? did they close diplomatic ties and then we opposed that? they did not bring it to the gcc to close their embassies in iran or close embassies of iran from the jcp -- gcc. charlie: gcc is the gulf countries consulate. sheikh hamad al-thani: yes. even brought that thinking, to close embassies. if they want to, it would be part of the gcc, but it's not happening. when you are talking about the islamic brotherhood and egypt, islamic brotherhood is a big name with varieties. them are part of the , and in thewhere parliament of some countries. some of them use aggression, which we d

let me get back to the inflation issue in egypt.entral bank there had hiked the rates to tame inflation. given that we're seing this huge social spending package of more than $2 billion, what's that going to do to prices? >> well, i don't think you're going to see that much secondary inflation coming on the back of the spending increases. i think what you will do is the government looks to move ahead with further fiscal reforms on energy prices, that's going to be the main catalyst. so we're not so worried about the increased spending driving inflationary pressure. it's very much reform driven. and we had already seen from the devaluation the secondary impact had started to come down as a result of that we continue to believe it's reform driven. we do not believe the 200 basis point rate hike we saw earlier this month will have much impact, the transmission mechanism to inflation in the real economy are not that strong. it's going to be a reform driven story. that's why you need the social spending to provide the safety net for thos

last week, five middle eastern states, egypt, saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, and yemen severedies with qatar. the goal was to isolate the country politically and economically for its alleged support of terrorism. the standoff that the u.s. in a difficult position, since both sides are american allies, and the u.s. has 10,000 troops in qatar. the state department has offered a resolution but it has not been , accepted. joining us is sheikh hamad bin jassim bin jaber al-thani, the former prime minister of qatar, and a close friend of the president and his father. i am pleased to have him at the table. welcome. the president of the united states visits saudi arabia, announces he fully supports saudi arabia and the emirates, and others efforts to isolate iran. several days later, we have an announcement that these arab states want to isolate qatar. they connected? what's going on? sheikh hamad al-thani: simply, we have been caught by surprise. conferencent to the and i think we had a good meeting with the president. there are always issues between our two countries are other countr

arabia, egypt, the u.a.e., doha just 10 days to comply with 13 demands. the closure of the al-jazeera news channel. continuing their investigation, say thates in the u.k. a faulty freezer unit sparked tower, int a london which at least 79 people lost their lives. >> good evening. we begin in brussels, where e.u. leaders have been gathering for been dominatede by the issues of migration security and the u.k.'s departure from the bloc. this one year to the day since the brexit vote. the british prime minister theresa may made a proposal to those present that e.u. citizens the u.k. residing in will be allowed to remain. but the proposal was given a lukewarm reception. officials said that a lot of work needs to be done on the process.on the german chancellor angela merkel called may's proposal a good beginning but not a breakthrough. on the issue of the distribution of migrants and refugees who come to european europe, no progress has been made at all. >> on the issue of the migrant borders, wexternal fully agree. although unfortunately, no progress has been

the egyptian people elect them in egypt. and sisi and the army throw them out. >> rose: president sisi. >> president sisi and for us, our i mir was one of the first people which he support sisi when he come, at that time. because that egyptian-- but their problem, they have so many problems inside. and they need to blame somebody. do you think qatar has the capability to do the economic situation as what it was or what it is now in egypt? despite all the billions being given from our other brothers in the region? i'm not sure the egyptians, they need to work inside egypt more and to do wht they need to do. we, i wish to see egypt one of the strongest countries in the world because it's one of the arab nation, the biggest nation. >> rose: the largest standing army. >> yes, we need, that they have strong army. because that's important for the arab nation. and the arab policy. that's one thing. there is change, there was an islamic government and they've been taken out by the election and another government come. look how we ar

this year marks the 50th anniversary of the june 1967 six day war between israel, egypt, jordan, and syria. next on american history tv, a panel of four and policy scholars response to johnson's response to the war, and how the conflict has had a continuing effect on the middle east. :lb andminute event titled is hosted by the washington institute or near east policy. >> good afternoon. i'm delighted to welcome you to this event. 2017 is a year of anniversary. today we are discussing one 50th of the the six-day war. importantny other middle east anniversaries, some less known, some better known. martin kramer has an article out this week on the 100th anniversary of this declaration, which is being marked in the beginning of november. does anybody know what the begin of her story -- the big anniversary is? 75th anniversary of america's planting in the middle east, operation torch from the end of world war ii. the end of november, the 70th anniversary of the partition on november 29. it is definitely a year of anniversaries. is, and anniversary that has not only historic significance,

we do not want egypt to be blamed for starting a conflict. if you fire the first shot, we will not be behind you. dumbfounded, how did the israelis even know about it? he convenes his general staff and says there has been a terrible leak, whatever you have planned, call it off. but the general was not to be quickly persuaded. he contacted the chief of the egyptian air force, and he said, how long will it take operation dawn to get off the ground? the chief of the air force said they were climbing into their cockpits and within 45 minutes they would be airborne. during the next three quarters of an hour, the future of the middle east hung in the balance. and he utilized those 45 minutes to consult with sources in the kremlin and they confirmed the substance of the message to nasser, that the soviet would not defend them with the first reich. so he called back and told the pallets to climb down, operation dawn is canceled. now we know, have operation been implemented as planned, that there was little israel could have done to stop it. we know f

the last six months we have doubled up in pakistan and egypt . to be interested in other parts of the region that we are not present in your in north africa we are not fully covered. even parts of the middle east we are not fully and. we just open kuwait. the other spaces that we still me to be present in. yousef: what about getting back to the financing issues? mudassir: i have not thought of it too much. is the equity funding way we are going. will that be more of a priority going forward?? -- will that be more of a priority going forward? is it 10%, 20%? current version of boxes is a pilot. as you know it is an add-on delivery service. and it will it deliver from point a to point b. we are seeing people using it to -- for getting coffee, getting food. we are starting to understand these cases and ideas that we institutionalized all these cases in the product. over time, the view is that it should become as big as our writing service -- riding service. best of luck with the remainder of the journey. that is the founder and ceo of careem. gettin

the government is lining up against qatar, libya, egypt, bahrain, united arab emirates and yemen. al jazeera has been closed, it is funded by qatar. they have cut land, sea and air links with qatar. much to the concern of some people there. >> supermarkets and qatar have been filled with residents stocking up on groceries. the rush came after several countries declared they are cutting ties with qatar. saudi arabia is imposing a blockade on his neighbor. there are charges that qatar is supporting organizations like the islamic state and egypt's former rulers which qatar denies. the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson currently in australia urged cooperation. >> we would encourage the parties to sit down together, address these differences. if there is any role we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the gcc remain unified. >> just two weeks ago, donald trump visited the middle east. the middle east was already divided before his trip. they must leave the countries within 48 hours. the citizens within two weeks. the emirates are letting t

a country as weighty as egypt, the largest arab country, standing behind those shows that there is an that 2014, there was this problem, and words were accepted. the point of this is less of an ultimatum answering these of the problems that we have highlighted. there is transparency find a solution. action rather than words, gestures alone are no longer good enough because of the consequence of what we've seen happening in the region. what confidence do you have that this can be resolved in a peaceful manner? the un is speaking about trying to broker some agreement between the gcc members and qatar. it has to be peaceful in the long term because the region is so small. there are familial ties and so forth. i do not think anyone is thinking let's go have a military solution to this. it has come to a fore because it has to do. too long it has been a point of putting in signals and so forth. it has to be resolved. how long it will take depends on how qatar responds at this point because i think for the gcc countries, for egypt, they have made it clear what they want. we have to see what

saudi arabia and egypt. its strategy is based on a basically perception that by creating a coalition not only against iran and against isis, basically the united states will be able to change the dynamics of the region. this particular strategy is to be tested. the middle east is a mine field. most presidents -- you're talking about from president clinton to president brush to president barack obama, and now president donald trump -- will realize sooner rather than later that the middle east is very complex and a very difficult area to manage from washington. >> fawaz, thank you so much for your time today. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. >>> the son of the late libyan leader moammar gadhafi is free after six years in captivity. a militia has been holding him since 2011. >> statements said that gadhafi was released under a general amnesty law. the libyan parliament passed. he is still wanted by the international criminal courts for alleged crimes against humanity. >>> british prime minister theresa may is

a country as weighty as egypt, the largest arab country, standing behind those shows that there is are right in that 2014, there was this problem, and words were accepted.

i spoke with the third richest guy in egypt.s been talking about the qatar, is the state of cutter being complicit? this is what he is telling his colleagues in business in terms of getting their money out of cutter to request i am not just urging them to take the money i am urging them not to be with cutter. because we are all watching every day. and a lunatic that for a savage person that kills innocent people or in my own country they talk about children and shot men in the eyes of the women. everything we hear all of these incidents. nobody is doing anything against it. we need to come to the bottom of that. you have one country that is supporting terror and other organizations. they are siding with iran openly that all intelligence have showing materials of their supporting all the terrorists from libya and syria and everywhere. no one is doing anything because they are the richest country in the world. because of the oil situation and all of that. so that is just what happened last week is a wake-up call for them. all of t

one other football line for you this evening — liverpool have confirmed the signing of egypt winger mohamedah from roma for a fee of around £34 million. salah has signed a five—year deal. the former chelsea player was a key figure as roma finished second in serie a last season, scoring 15 goals in 31 league appearances. it's been a frustrating day for british number one johanna konta in the tennis. she now has one tournament left before wimbledon to boost her confidence again after a second—round defeat at the aegon classic in birmingham.

since general sisi took power, 19 new prisons have been built in egypt. 19 new prisons!ntracts for refurbishing the prisons go to the home office. so basically you would be letting the 60,000 kids down if you just decided to be pessimistic. so you work in whatever space is allowed, and actually when you're on the ground you see lots and lots of grounds for hope because people don't stop working, people don't stop agitating, trying to build, creating organisations, writing, having photography exhibitions, whatever it is that people do, they carry on doing. you talk about working in whatever space is available to you, the space you've occupied for a very, very long time has been this halfway house if you like between the orient and the west and the 0ccident, you've written about it in mezzaterra, but i think you say now that that space is becoming smaller and smaller, you're finding it more and more awkward, with that the right? actually mezzaterra was published in 2004 and after 2011 i actually think in different terms i think there were many of us who occupy what i would

the united arab emirates and egypt are penalizing qatar for supporting islamic groups.ares hit a new high this year, gaining more than 45%. this after the company's experimental cancer drug worked on a variety of tumors. the effectiveness of adults and children tested across 17 different types of cancer. for will seek fda approval the drug which targets genetic abnormality. that is your business flash update. apple has a new announcements. this just breaking. it has unveiled a new smart speaker that will be unveiled to the market later this year. it let's head to cory johnson who is in the field with the latest. i am looking at t live go. there is a picture of it. it's called home pod. it is under seven inches tall and covered in a mesh fabric. give his details on this new hardware product. cory: you just gave a lot of it right there. seven small tweeters on the inside of it and one giant woofer with an engine that sort of cranks out the sound. chip, theapple a8 same in the iphone or the ipad just for the speaker. is acoustical modeling. if you put it in the middle of y

egypt and bahrain to hand over all files that detail qatar's prior contacts with and support for these opposition groups it also talks about paying reparations for loss of life and other losses that have been caused by qatar policies now. the sum will be determined in coordination with qatar so qatar must also consent to regular order for the next ten years the list says that there needs to be agreement to all demands within ten days or the list becomes invalid now the document does not specify what the countries will do if qatar refuses to comply so of course it remains to be seen whether qatar will view these demands as either reasonable or actionable or shortly after the demands were published in the media the foreign minister of the usa you choose qatar leaking them to the press you said it's either an attempt to undermine serious mediation or yet another sign what you called callous policy. zero has also reacted to the gulf states demands of its closure calling such condition a crime and a violation against free speech and here's what turkey's defense minister said about the deman

now egypt says the qataris has not carried out the promises in the kuwait agreement in 2014. my take is there is another factor in the equation, president trump's visit to saudi arabia and the summit where the spark that triggered this particular current crisis. now qatar is in a corner, in a weak position, and the saudis and their allies are trying to force qatar to accept the demands by saudi arabia and its allies. >> the qataris reject this notion that somehow they're supporting any type of terrorist organization. in fact, what they cite when i speak to them is they say this is more about the arab spring, the change, they want to support what they say are populist movements across the region and trying to embrace that change by giving the islamist a seat at the table. that is something that's been rejected by saudi arabia and egypt that considers the brotherhood a terrorist organization. does qatar's explanation hold any water, do you think? do they have a truth in the fact they're trying to embrace more popular movements in these countries, or not? >> my take on it is tha

i would say you are seeing clarity, not from saudi arabia alone, egypt and other countries are at leasty in the region that is supporting non—state actors that are supporting non—state actors that are supporting groups like everyone from militias in libya, cutting deals with militias sitting in a row, saying there comes a point where we have two stop. outside of the region, many of them say the problem is... we have a country in the region that has been supporting extremist elements but non—state actors, whether you have the taliban having a representative office as though it is an embassy. these are signals that actually have detrimental effects on lives and thatis detrimental effects on lives and that is what we are seeing translated in the region. jeff, is this the consequence of president trump's recent visit to the region and has very strong message of support to saudi arabia? the reporting is that the saudis felt empowered by the green light that they got from trump who also pushed very hard to say that he was going to be the pick of the united states, the bat, he had him to his h

i would have to bring up egypt in the conversation.t is a city that you described as ill mannered. they illuminate extremely large on the book. they make the journey on various occasions working there for various periods, learning and teaching. why is egypt so important and central to the world of islamism and jihad at? >> there is a dominance in the world having the largest arab population at the center of the culture in many different ways so unsurprisingly that is going to have outside influence on the islamic state. there is also in more recent dynamics, an important issue after the square revolution there was a moment. it could be planned, the communities could be formed in possible today as well. they eventually got together in reality so you mentioned some of the figures. they come to him and learn at his feet. it was sort of like we talk about how it was a safe haven for the islamist groups and it was intellectual safe havens where people could find their teachers and get the message o out. then there woul there were alree comm

it doesn't have oil reserves, history of being a nice ally like egypt.it's ever been a country that the united states has been interesting. starting point. when you look at how the united states reacted to a lot of those reactions were couched in the language of some kind of universal values like we believe in democracy or we believe in freedom of speech and so on. actually, the reaction was often a relationship related to the utica pertinence of the united states. for example, when the uprising began in egypt that's a problem the united states. egypt is a very important ally in the us is worried that have stability there. when people to the streets after a prolonged period of time the obama and mr. said we need to do something about this and they literally got on the phone to egypt and said something about this. there's a two. we have to create stability. the side of that is bahrain where there's an uprising there that is crossed by the saudi arabians and the united emirates military. the united states did not say anything. they actually wanted to lean

saudi arabia, bahrain, the uae as well as egypt have all cut diplomatic ties to qatar.ed an air, land and sea embargo on the country, causing some panic buying. they're accusing the gas—rich gulf state of funding terrorists and helping iran destabilise the region. qatar strongly denies it. it was president trump's recent visit to riyadh that emboldened the saudis. its leaders now feel they've got the green light from washington to get tough on their rivals and adversaries. but qatar hosts us central command's airbase for the entire middle east and the us needs this spat to be resolved quickly. what we are witnessing is a growing list of some irritants in the region that have been there for some time. obviously now they have bubbled up to a level that countries have decided they needed to take action in an effort to have those differences addressed. we certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences. six arab nations have lined up to accuse qatar and its ruling emir of supporting the muslim brotherhood and hamas to promote an isla

in egypt. met members of the muslim brotherhood who confirmed that the network had given them cameras, live transmission equipment, and use their footage without the knowledge of us, which contributed to our tough situation. >> when he filed his lawsuit, al jazeera denied the charges. months before fahmy's arrest, egypt's overthrew. one of the many examples of the deep and complicated rivalries and conflicts among middle east countries. several, like saudi arabia and egypt, have severed ties with qatar. in in the latest encounter, president trump is taking sides. >> one of the big things we did, and you are seeing it with qatar and the things that are actually going on in a very positive fashion, we are stopping the funding of terrorism. we are going to stop the funding of terrorism. >> state apartment official says secretary of state rex tillerson and a dozen phone calls has spoken to his counterparts in the region, attempting to end the standoff. tillerson has called for calm and thoughtful d