[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10989]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  STOP THE BLOCKADE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I always applaud when the United States 
steps in and takes a leadership role to prevent war. I have traveled to 
the Mideast for many years as a Member of the United States Congress 
representing my constituents.
  I want to express my appreciation to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 
for the energy that he is putting into engaging Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, 
UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar to be able to stop the blockade and the 
conflict that may continue to grow against Qatar.
  This is a region that many of these countries have been allies of the 
United States, the Southern Command is in Qatar, and, frankly, I think 
they need to be united against those terrorists that plague them all.
  I would also say that the UAE, as has been reported in the Nation's 
newspapers, hacked into the emails of Qatar and put words in the mouths 
of their government officials that were untrue. This is not the way to 
proceed with peace and diplomacy.
  So I believe we should energetically and aggressively engage these 
countries to stop this blockade and begin to repair the collaborative 
efforts to ensure that we fight the war on terror together and not 
against.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Tillerson. I look forward to working with 
him as a Member of the United States Congress to bring peace to that 
region.

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