The past few days have seen a diplomatic crisis start between Qatar and other Arab States. President Donald Trump decided to interject himself into the situation with a series of his usual early morning tweets. Now, the newest revelation in the crisis involves the FBI saying that Russian hackers are involved in the slandering of Qatar's leader.

Arab Nations cut ties

In the worse diplomatic crisis to hit the Arab states in decades, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE, Yemen, Libya, Mauritania and the Maldives have all broke off relations with Qatar.

All fights to and from Qatar's capital of Doha have been suspended, and Saudi Arabia closed its Al-Jazeera office in the country. Diplomats from Qatar now have 48 hours to leave some countries, while Qatar is calling on the citizens to return home within two weeks. Qatar was also booted from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and all ports of entry to Qatar will be closed.

This whole crisis stems from Qatar's alleged support of ISIS, al-Qaeda and rebels in Yemen, according to Saudi Arabia. The UAE has said that the country "funds and hosts" the Muslim Brotherhood, whom the UAE and Saudi Arabia consider a terrorist group. Both countries argued that these actions had gone on for years with Qatar.

This all comes two weeks after Qatar's Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, allegedly praised Iran and criticized President Donald Trump, but the country argued these reports were fabricated.

Donald Trump interjects himself

Yesterday morning, President Donald Trump decided to inject himself into the Qatar crisis with a series of morning tweets (see below).

Naturally, this was followed by officials in the Trump administration saying that he was not "taking sides" in the dispute between Qatar and the other Arab Nations. This comes following Trump's visit last month to Saudi Arabia, where he heaped praise on them as the regional leader and said that Arabs and Muslims must come together to stop terrorism.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for dialogue between the Arab states. Meanwhile, State Department spokeswomen Heather Nauert said that they recognize Qatar's effort to stop funding terrorism, but that they still have work to do. Qatar is a key American ally in the region, especially since the U.S. operates an air base with about 10,000 troops in the country.

Russian hackers involved

Now, an investigation by the FBI has concluded that Russian hackers were behind sending out the fake messages made by the Emir of Qatar, setting off the diplomatic crisis. The Russian government is not believed to be involved in the hack, but rather freelance Russian hackers were paid to undertake the work on behalf of a state or individual.

Some observers have privately said that Saudi Arabia or the UAE might have signed off on the hacks. Qatar claims that this was done to discredit their leader and weaken ties to the rest of the region. They are also now willing to sit down and talk with the other Arab nations to mediate the crisis.
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