LONDON – Leaked emails obtained by the BBC on Monday show that the UAElobbied the US to sack Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for failing to sidewith the Emirates in its struggle against Qatar.
The sender of the emails, Elliott Broidy, owns a private security companythat has contracts with the UAE worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Heis a fundraiser for US President Donald Trump and met him in October.
According to the BBC article, the emails are an account of what he toldTrump during that meeting.
Broidy said in the emails that Tillerson was “performing poorly and shouldbe fired at a politically convenient time”.
In June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut offall air, land and sea links to Qatar. Trump sided with the four-nationcoalition, saying that the tiny petrochemical nation funded terrorism.
But Tillerson has criticised the embargo of Qatar. When the blockade began,Tillerson said it was “impairing US and other international businessactivities in the region”.
Broidy also said Qatar was “a television station with a country,” referringto the broadcast network Al Jazeera. He added that the network has done”nothing positive”.
Al Jazeera has routinely aired critical coverage of Saudi Arabia and theUAE, most recently of their involvement in Yemen’s civil war.
Broidy sent the emails to George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman whooperates as an adviser to the UAE’s military chief, Mohammed bin Zayed.
Both Broidy and Nader are people of interest in Robert Mueller’s probe intowhether Trump illegally collaborated with foreign countries during thepresidential campaign, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
“Mueller s investigators have questioned Nader and have pressed witnessesfor information about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buypolitical influence by directing money to support Trump during thepresidential campaign, according to people with knowledge of thediscussions,” the paper reported.
In a rebuttal to the leak, a spokesperson for Broidy’s defence company,Circinus, told the BBC that Qatar hacked his emails and that they “may havebeen altered”.
“We have reason to believe this hack was sponsored and carried out byregistered and unregistered agents of Qatar seeking to punish Mr Broidy forhis strong opposition to state-sponsored terrorism,” the spokesperson said.
Qatar has denied these claims.
“Qatar would like to state unequivocally that it has not engaged in orcommitted any of the alleged accusations made falsely by Mr Broidy, nor hasit engaged or paid anyone to do so,” the country’s communications officetold the BBC. – Agencies