De schoonzoon van Trump, Jared Kushner is de grote gangmaker achter de boycot ingesteld op Qatar door Saoedi-Arabië, Egypte, de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten (VAE) en Bahrein.
Topgraaier Kushner kocht met een enorme berg geleend geld, op het verkeerde moment (in 2007) een wolkenkrabber in New York. Nadat de crisis in 2008 losbarstte, moest Kushner een flink deel van het gebouw verkopen. Om de rest van de schuld te kunnen betalen, zocht hij geld in o.a. Qatar dat hem een lening van 500 miljoen dollar in het vooruitzicht stelde.
Sjeik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (HBJ) uit Qatar wilde hem 500 miljoen dollar lenen, als hij inderdaad zou worden gekozen als adviseur van het Witte Huis. Ook een Chinees staatsbedrijf wilde investeren in de wolkenkrabber. Echter nadat Kushner zijn adviseursaanstelling kreeg, trok het Chinese bedrijf zich terug vanwege vermeende belangenverstrengeling.
Als reactie op die beslissing, trok ook de sjeik uit Qatar zich terug uit het ‘project’.
The Intercept meldde dat Kushner het Witte Huis adviseerde op te treden tegen Qatar, hoewel er geen hard bewijs is, dat e.e.a. met de beslissing van de sjeik te maken had, is het wel duidelijk dat het één met het ander te maken heeft…… Met andere woorden: ook hier heeft de VS de lont in het kruitvat gestoken…..
Het volgende bericht, gepubliceerd door Anti-Media, is grotendeels gebaseerd op het artikel van The Intercept (in het bericht vind je de link naar dat artikel):
Jared
Kushner ‘Sought $500 Million From Qatar for Skyscraper Bailout’
July
11, 2017 at 4:24 am
Written
by Middle
East Eye
(MEE) — Jared
Kushner, the son-in-law to US President Donald Trump and a senior
White House adviser, sought a $500m investment from Qatar for a New
York skyscraper shortly before the diplomatic crisis between Qatar
and a host of other countries, according to an Intercept
article on
Monday.
The
account raises suspicions that Trump’s foreign policy is related to
the family’s business interests.
Citing
unidentified sources that reportedly had knowledge of the proposed
bailout, the Intercept reported that Kushner tried to shore up
funding from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (HBJ) after the
skyscraper’s value plummeted from the real estate crisis in 2008.
Kushner had bought the building in 2007 – when he was 26 – for
$500m out of his family’s pocket and $1.3bn in borrowed money.
However,
the real estate crisis forced Kushner to sell off a sizeable chunk of
their office space in the building as part of a financial package;
but in order to pay back those who originally borrowed money, he must
have $1.3bn by early next year. According to a New
York Magazine report,
if Kushner “can’t find some new scheme for refinancing and
redeveloping the property by then, [he] will have cost his family
half a billion dollars”.
After
the election, investors appeared to be willing to bail out Kushner’s
skyscraper fiasco.
HBJ
reportedly agreed to invest $500m in the severely debt-ridden
property as long as Kushner was able to raise the rest of the money,
which he could do when he became a senior White House adviser,
according to the Intercept article.
A
Chinese company with ties to members of the country’s ruling party
was also willing to shore up $400m in March, but had decided to back
out in March over a “conflict of interest” that consisted of “a
company with ties to the Chinese government going into [big] business
with the family of a senior adviser to the American one”.
When
the Chinese company exited, so did HBJ.
Months
later in June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and
Bahrain cut off all air, land and sea links to Qatar. Trump sided
with the four-nation coalition, saying that the tiny petro-chemical
nation funded terrorism.
The
Intercept reported that Kushner played a key role in the White
House’s hardline stance against Qatar, but it did not establish a
link whether Kushner’s role had anything to do with the failed
skyscraper bailout.
By MEE
staff /
Republished with permission / Middle
East Eye / Report
a typo
