According to a Monday report from The Intercept, former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was booted from his position after he shut down a Saudi-led and United Arab Emirates-backed military operation against Qatar. The planned 2017 operation stemmed from Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partner's move to isolate Qatar over claims that it had been acting as a sponsor for terrorism.
The operation would've involved Saudi forces circumventing the Al Udeid Air Base, home to some 10,000 American troops, and taking control of the Qatari capital of Doha.
The report goes on to mention that Tillerson, after being informed of the move by Qatari intelligence officers working in Saudi Arabia, made a series of calls to Saudi officials, urging them not to take action. The 66-year-old official also tapped US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to follow his lead and do the same with his counterparts in the kingdom. With Tillerson withholding his stamp of approval, the operation was shuttered.
However, Tillerson's decision to intervene was the final nail in the coffin for his job, as an enraged Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, lobbied the US to part ways with its secretary of state for overstepping, according to the publication.
Trump's move to side with Saudi Arabia and its partners, according to al-Ahmed, shows "that this is how Saudis and the UAE are able to basically meddle with American foreign policy and remove a secretary of state from his position."
"What is most concerning is people talking about Russia and meddling, which is something they should do, but they're leaving [out] the Saudis, Emiratis and others meddling in the US elections, funding candidates and supporting the removal of secretaries of state and other officials from the US government," he continued.
"This is even worse than what we're talking about in terms of Russian meddling, because it did not pay officials to do something or not do something."
Nine months after the June 2017 fiasco, Tillerson was out of a job. He was ultimately replaced by Mike Pompeo, who served as the director of the CIA before being bumped up to serve as the 70th US secretary of state.