Nationalist leader Steve Bannon slammed U.S. allies Turkey and Qatar in an interview with Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.
“Turkey is the biggest danger for us,” Bannon declared.
“No, not even close to Iran,” he continued, waving his hand in dismissal of the popular notion that Iran and North Korea are the greatest threats the United States faces abroad.
“We don’t read well what is going on in Turkey right now, under [Turkish President] Erdogan,” Bannon said. “This is an issue I am going to pursue hard.”
Bannon followed by hammering Qatar, Turkey’s long-time ally and benefactor.
“Qatar is as dangerous as North Korea!” he argued. “People should pay attention to this important situation.”
Bannon’s remarks will no doubt be seen as controversial. The United States has large military presence in both countries, and Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952. In addition, they may come as a surprise, given Bannon’s staunch advocacy for de-ratification of the Iran deal.
However, in recent years, both countries have aligned themselves with the rising Muslim Brotherhood movement, to the ire of other regional powers, such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and more recently, Saudi Arabia, which has taken a more strongly anti-Brotherhood stance within the last year following the rise of the the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who now serves as de-facto leader of the country.
Furthermore, both countries have backed the Islamist militant group Hamas in the Palestinian territories, anti-government organizations in Egypt, and the Brotherhood-aligned ‘Dawn’ militias in Libya. Qatar also reportedly maintains covert ties to the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria and Somalia. Turkey has also taken a belligerent approach towards Europe, threatening to flood the continent with thousands of Islamic migrants.
Unlike Saudi Arabia, they tend to take a less sectarian and more pan-Islamist approach to regional relations, maintaining cordial ties to the Iranians and their Shi’ite proxies in Lebanon and Iraq, despite strong disagreement over the Syrian conflict. All of these factors have contributed to rising tensions with Saudi Arabia and its allies, culminating in the diplomatic isolation of Qatar that started in June.
“I credit Donald Trump on the measures taken against Qatar by the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” Bannon said. “The boycott happened shortly after [Trump’s] visit to Saudi Arabia, just like that.”
Bannon’s remarks echo what he said earlier in the week on a panel at the Hudson Institute. He praised Mohammed bin Salman for having “1,000 clerics rounded up or put under house arrest”, and described the blockade of Qatar as a “well-thought-out plan” in order to achieve a “100 percent cutoff of radical Islamic terrorism”.
However, despite Bannon’s comments, Saudi Arabia has also come under criticism for its sponsorship of jihadist elements, particularly in Syria. Whether the kingdom’s reputation will change under Mohammed bin Salman’s leadership remains to be seen.
During the rest of the Asharq interview, Bannon criticized Europe for “not [making] any attempt to defend itself”, and generally called for a more restrained foreign policy, stating that “we are going to start acting like adults” under President Trump. He also emphasized his friendship with Brexit leader Nigel Farage, and revealed that he had turned down an offer by Mark Cuban to run a future presidential campaign. He then went on to describe his vision for the 2018 mid-term elections, and criticize “globalists” within the administration, such as Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn, and in particular, H.R. McMaster, who Bannon dubbed “[his] enemy”.
“Even if someone kills me, this revolution has already started,” Bannon, who now fears for his life, ominously concluded. “Nobody can kill it. Others will carry on.”
Brannon’s a fool.
Bannon will move to Mexico with his pal Jess Ventura so they can play Risk and play ass-grab. Guy is a frocking idiot.
Meanwhile he’s telling this to a Saudi newspaper apparently ignorant of the fact that our benevolent Saudi friends have been funding the growth of radical mosques all across the country.
He’s 100% right, my man!
No Iran bigger but we need to be careful of Turkey.
Ryan
I agree and love his fearlessness in saying this
couldn’t agree more
The threat usually comes from the people we are taking pains to antagonize. Funny how that works.
WOW.
Is there any nation that US don’t consider a ‘threat’?
A mere +-10 that don’t have ‘merican military occupation … like a Machiavellian-Malevolent-Metastasized Malignancy – bloodsucking the primary cancerous source while destroying all healthy tissue and blood draining across the planet.
Imagine if ….
The entire $ gazillion US military budget was re-directed to innovated businesses & infrastructure rebuild – and investing in education and training people in world DIPLOMACY (where now “diplomats” are mere coup pimps & insurrection agencies).
The Lockheeds & Co directed to recalibrate to produce advanced tech ??? modulrar eco homes for export instead of now all US exports is death-destruction-devastation
Every last corporate killer-poppy field & “our security interest” guards, terrorist trainers aka “soldiers”, every ship, nuke sub, bomber, missile etc was re-deployed to US … placed around your coasts and borders for MAXIMUM “Security and Defence” … IMAGINE! What would happen ? Why are there USAvage killers in all but a dozen of the entire worlds nations? Don’t believe the absolute tripe that the rest of the world would all be killing each other without the “civilising” influence of US ROGUE self appointed “cop”.
Isn’t that a starting point: Get every last soldier, sailor, al CIAda terrorist-cum-spook, mercenary, drone killer, craven altitude killer pilot home. Put them to work on MAKE AMERICA RESPECTED AGAIN … not “great”, but RESPECTED …for now USAvaglandia is FEARED as one does a Serial Paedophile Gang Rapist-Axe Murderer Rogue Cop…. where every nation is a “threat” and there is perpetual addiction to having “enemies” and war.
Is there any nation that US don’t consider a ‘threat’?
Sure, the only nation that we should consider a threat, Israel.
Based Bannon dropping red pills
I think hes wrong about this one. Both r threats.
Why is Turkey the biggest danger for the United States, which has befriended the successors of the defunct Ottoman Empire? Because Turkey (made up of the same Turks from the Ottoman Empire) is the original terrorist state; their greatest claim to fame is that of the inventor of genocide, not to mention genocide denial. They are a threat to us because Turkey has been controlling the US’s foreign policy and human rights voice for nearly a century, threatening and bribing and then threatening to expose bribes, to anybody who dares to say “Armenian Genocide” and Turkey” in the same sentence – shame on the so-called leader of the free world – the US has just as much blood on its hands as Turkey does because the US has given safe-haven to these monsters. Turkey is a threat unless and until somebody stands up to them…