U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday accused Qatar of being a "high level" sponsor of terrorism, potentially hindering the U.S. Department of State's efforts to ease heightening tensions and a blockade of the Gulf nation by Arab states and others.
"The nation of Qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"So we had a decision to make, do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action. We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided ...the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding," Trump said, adding that he helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders after a recent summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.