US media personality Tucker Carlson says will purchase property in Qatar

AFP | Doha

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US right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson announced yesterday that he would purchase property in Qatar as he rebuffed accusations he had taken money from the Gulf state.

“I have been criticised as being a tool of Qatar... I’ve never taken anything from your country and don’t plan to. I am, however, tomorrow, buying a place in Qatar,” Carlson said as he interviewed Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

“I’m doing that because I like the city, I think it’s beautiful, but also to make the statement that I’m an American and a free man and I’ll be wherever I want to be,” the former Fox News presenter said, appearing before an audience at the annual diplomatic Doha Forum.

Qatar is home to the largest US air base in the Middle East and is the forward base of Central Command, the US military command responsible for the region.

The gas-rich emirate is classified by Washington as a major non-NATO ally, and has assiduously courted US President Donald Trump, gifting him a luxury plane in May to serve as a new Air Force One amid delays in the delivery of new presidential aircraft.

Sheikh Mohammed said that unnamed people were putting in “a lot of effort to sabotage the relationship between Qatar and the United States and to try to demonise anyone who will come to this country”.

He acknowledged outreach by the Gulf country to the United States “to make sure that this relationship is safeguarded and the relationship for us is mutually beneficial”.