US President Barack Obama plans to thank the Qatari ruler during his Washington visit for hosting an American air base in the Persian Gulf and his help with many US intervention bids in Muslim nations, including channeling of arms to militant gangs in Syria.<\/p>\n
Obama reportedly also intends to \u201cpress\u201d Qatar\u2019s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani \u201cto ensure\u201d that the massive amounts of weapons Qatar is purchasing and shipping to anti-Damascus insurgents does not end up with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants \u201cand other extremist groups\u201d fighting the Syrian government when he welcomes the Qatari dictator to the White House on Tuesday, The Washington Post reports.<\/p>\n
According to the report, \u201callegations\u201d that \u201csome Qatari aid is flowing to extremist\u201d militant gangs in Syria have been made \u201cprimarily by Qatar\u2019s Persian Gulf neighbors, which are rivals for regional influence\u201d and have their own aims and objectives in the anti-Damascus intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll are friends of the United States, and their rivalry has put the Obama administration in a difficult position as it tries to establish the parameters of its Syria policy,\u201d the influential US daily adds in its Tuesday report.<\/p>\n
Further pointing to Washington\u2019s efforts to keep its anti-Syria so-called \u201ccore group\u201d together, the report adds that Obama also held talks earlier this month with United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Arabia\u2019s long-time Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in separate meetings in Washington.<\/p>\n
In addition to US, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the US-led \u2018core group\u2019 includes France, Britain, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Jordan, UAE and Egypt.<\/p>\n
In the next few weeks, the daily adds, Obama will also host Jordanian despot King Abdullah and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington to further discuss the US-led armed intervention efforts to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the only country in the region that has actively supported Palestinian resistance against premier American foreign ally, the Israeli regime.<\/p>\n
Turkey and Jordan share borders with Syria and play host to thousands of Syrian refugees, displaced by the ongoing foreign-backed insurgency in the country. <\/p>\n