Qatar emerged as a key player on the world stage this weekend with its global conference in Doha, attended by White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, amid signs that the two-year rift between Qatar and Saudi Arabia might be thawing.
Trump, the eldest daughter of President Donald Trump, and Mnuchin arrived at the two-day Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also participated in the session, which brings together policymakers from around the world to discuss a diverse range of global issues. In its 19th year, the Doha Forum's theme this year was "Reimagining Governance in a Multipolar World."
Qatar, a staunch U.S. ally and the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is home to America's biggest military base in the Middle East, with as many as 10,000 U.S. troops stationed at Al Udeid Air Base.
Ivanka Trump visited the base on Sunday to thank U.S. military personnel for their service, the Daily Mail reports.
Her visit marked her second to the Middle East in as many years, according to the Daily Mail. She last visited Saudi Arabia in 2017 as part of her father's first trip abroad as president.
Ivanka Trump's presence in Doha was unlike last year, when the Trump administration largely avoided the forum amid the rift between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, also a traditional U.S.regional ally, BuzzFeed News reports.
President Trump initially appeared to side with Saudi Arabia, but Brian Hook, the State Department's special representative for Iran, cast the U.S. presence to the website as a strong sign of American efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
In Qatar, Ivanka Trump met with several top-level politicians and business leaders, including Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, the Daily Mail reports.
She also discussed her Women's Global Development Prosperity Initiative project, which has created a fund to pay for public-private efforts that seek to empower 50 million women globally by 2025.
The initiative builds on United Nations research showing that women's involvement in peace initiatives and development projects makes those initiatives more likely to succeed in the long term.
"All too often, development assistance becomes more of an entitlement—and recipient countries don't transition to self-reliance and ultimately to trading partners," Trump said, according to BuzzFeed.
"We believe one of the core reasons why that transition doesn't happen is because women are oftentimes grossly underutilized in these societies."
In addition, Mnuchin told the forum that the "phase one" trade deal between the United States and China was "very good" for global economic growth, adding that the second phase could come in several steps.
"We expect it will be fully executed in January," he said Saturday. "And then, we get to 'phase two.'
"The most important issue is, let's make sure we implement 'phase one' with an enforceable agreement, which it is," Mnuchin added. "And then, we start negotiating 'phase two.'
"There are important issues left in 'phase two,'" the treasury secretary continued. "And, perhaps, there will be a 'phase two-A', 'phase two-B' and 'phase two-C.'
"We will see," Mnuchin said.
But Mnuchin also said the Gulf states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, needed to work out their differences for the broader good of the region.
"We hope they can work out their issues amongst them, because I do think there are bigger regional security issues that everyone needs to be unified on," he said.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the country of financing terrorism, which Doha has vehemently denied.
However, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani attended an annual Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Saudi Arabia last week, its highest representation at the meeting since 2017, Reuters reports.
At the Doha Forum on Saturday, Foreign Minister Mohammed said that there had been "small progress" in resolving the bitter dispute.
He told CNN on Sunday: "There [is] some progress. We have broken the stalemate of non-communication to starting communication with the Saudis.
"Honestly, from our perspective in Qatar, we want to understand the grievances," he said. "We want to study them and to assess them and to look at the solutions that can safeguard us in the future from any other potential crisis."
Kuwait and the United States have tried to mediate the rift between Qatar and its neighbors, which has undermined Washington's efforts to confront Iran, Reuters reports.
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