A TOP adviser to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) supplied millions of dollars to a Donald Trump fundraiser in order to push anti-Qatar legislation through the US Congress, a new investigation has revealed.

Elliott Broidy received $2.5 million (£1.75m) from UAE adviser George Nader, now a witness to a probe into foreign meddling in US politics, shortly before sponsoring a conference on Qatar’s ties to Islamist extremism and distributing just under $600,000 to senior Republicans in Congress and on party committees.

During the conference Californian congressman Ed Royce said he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar a terrorist-supporting state and apply sanctions. The Bill is currently awaiting review by the House financial services committee.

Mr Royce had received $5,400 in campaign gifts, the maximum allowed by law, from Mr Broidy.

The despotic Gulf country is a long-term ally of Washington and home to the largest US air base in the Middle East at al-Udeid, but tensions with fellow US ally Saudi Arabia resulted in a blockade by its neighbours last year, with the UAE in the Saudi camp.

Saudi Arabia backs extreme Salafist terror organisations in the Middle East such as the Syrian rebel groups Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, while Qatar is reportedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestine’s Hamas movement.

Mr Broidy and Mr Royce both maintain that they have long been outspoken critics of Qatar and deny that money from the UAE or its advisers has played any part in their activity.