I don’t like headlines that ask questions, but while there’s no hard evidence given for what’s suggested by this story, the soft evidence is fairly damning.
And if is true, it’s beyond unconscionable.
You might recall that Saudi Arabia and its neighbours launched a blockade against Qatar—traditionally an American ally and the home of the USA’s largest Middle East military base—on June 5, 2017, with the backing of Jared Kushner, whom Trump put in charge of Middle East peace.
In fact when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to resolve the conflict, Kushner and Trump sabotaged his efforts. See here.
Multiple news outlets are now reporting that, in late April, i.e. about a month prior, the Qatari finance minister turned down an appeal by Jared’s father Charles Kushner for a loan to refinance Jared’s financially-disastrous property at 666 Fifth Avenue.
The Intercept seems to have got the story first, from two sources.
The Hill also credit two sources, but of course we can’t know if they’re the same two sources.
Per The Intercept:
The Gulf crisis involving Qatar and its neighbors will likely be Kushner’s defining foreign policy legacy. The crisis followed a May visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by Kushner and President Donald Trump, who subsequently took credit for Saudi Arabia and its allies’ efforts against Qatar. The fallout has reshaped geopolitical alliances in the region, splitting the Gulf Cooperation Council and pushing Qatar, home to the Middle East’s largest U.S. military base, closer to Turkey and Iran.
Tillerson, calling on Saudi and its blockade partners to resolve the conflict, describes the humanitarian, economic and military effects of the blockade in video in Newsweek’s story:
We’re seeing shortages of food, families are being forceably separated, and children are being pulled out of school.
[...]
The blockade is also impairing US and other international business activities in the region, and has created a hardship on the people of Qatar and the people whose livelihood depend on commerce with Qatar. The blockade is hindering US military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS.
More from BBC:
Qatar is dependent on imports by land and sea for the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million, and about 40% of its food came in through the land border with Saudi Arabia.
Initially, supermarket shelves in Doha were emptied of basic supplies as residents rushed to stock up but the hoarding quickly ended after Turkey and Iran began sending food by air and sea.
[...]
Qatar's stock market lost about 10%, or about $15bn (£12bn), in market value over the first four weeks of the crisis. However, the stock market has since recovered 6% of its pre-crisis value. Exports of liquefied natural gas have also so far not been affected and the emirate's finance minister says Qatar has enough resources to defend its economy and currency.
There’s evidence that the blockade is damaging its wielders as well.
The Trump family, including in-laws, is all about sowing discord and destruction.
If we want to gauge plausibility… well, I wouldn’t put it past either Kushner or Trump. Trump is a global-scale malignant narcissist for whom other people and their well-being don’t really exist, and has repeatedly proven himself pathologically vindictive. This is the man who wanted to see five black youth who had been proven innocent executed anyway, who is dealing one blow after another to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico, regardless of the rising death-toll, who’ll start a trade war because he’s unhinged and who will threaten nuclear war if he’s insulted.
Kushner is another silver-spoon boy, too stupid himself to realize how stupid his father-in-law is, so inclined to follow. Take revenge on an entire nation for not throwing good money after bad so as to save his miserable ass? As I said, multiple news outlets have picked up the story… because they agree with me that the revenge motive is plausible.
This bit of the Intercept story is interesting, too:
The news of Kushner Companies’ direct pitch to the Qatari government puts a Wednesday report from the Washington Post into broader context. U.S. intelligence services, the paper reported, had determined that officials in four countries — the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico — had been privately discussing how to use Jared Kushner’s real-estate investments as a way to gain leverage over him in order to influence official U.S. policy.
Carrots and sticks.
This is all an excellent demonstration of why public service and personal business do not mix—and why, therefore, it is imperative that the president, and relatives of the president if their businesses are entangled with the president’s and they’re serving as key advisors and representatives of the nation, divest themselves of their interests and assets prior to taking on public service roles.
But these people don’t understand that a conflict of interest is a bad thing. Or nepotism.
Because they care only about themselves, these are perks.
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Friday, Mar 2, 2018 · 8:21:27 PM +00:00 · Karen Wehrstein
Yes, per NBC, h/t to Kerry Eleveld, Mueller is looking into this.
And multiple people are saying the Qataris themselves feel it’s revenge.
Federal investigators are scrutinizing whether any of Jared Kushner's business discussions with foreigners during the presidential transition later shaped White House policies in ways designed to either benefit or retaliate against those he spoke with, according to witnesses and other people familiar with the investigation.
[...]
Some top Qatari government officials believe the White House's position on the blockade may have been a form of retaliation driven by Kushner who was sour about the failed deal, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia and UAE have long had a rivalry with Qatar.
Friday, Mar 2, 2018 · 9:19:41 PM +00:00 · Karen Wehrstein
In the comments, sunbro reminds us about Russia’s involvement in the Qatar crisis, per a June 7, 2017 CNN story:
US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US' closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
At the time, I think we were all thinking that the Russians did this just to sow discord between the US and an ally, which is naturally an objective of Putin.
Now I (and sunbro) are wondering if Kush arranged it with his Russian buddies. Win for Russia: discord sowed. Win for the Trumps: they got even with Qatar so their little feefees feel better.
Lose for the USA. Lose for the Middle East. Lose for the world.