One phone call of Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to
Iranian President to congratulate him for his re-election as president of Iran
and subsequent official publication of Qatar
stating "Iran is a regional and Islamic
Power that cannot be ignored",
which later Qatar disowned and claimed to be the handiwork of hackers,
was enough for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Nations,
Egypt and Libya to sever ties with Qatar which was followed by land, sea and
air blockade. It was on June 5 that the embargo started and is still going on
with both the parties holding on to their stand. Showing support to Iran was only
a last straw to break the camel's back . Tensions have been building for years.
Qatar is a small country with a population of less than 3
million people. But her abundant wealth
prompted Doha to pursue some misadventures in Syria to become relevant in the
regional politics and expected her Imaginary "Qatar- Turkey-Europe"
gas pipeline project to turn into reality through regime change in Syria. It is
also the big reason for Turkey to side with Qatar in this crisis. Denouncing Saudi Arabia 's move towards Qatar, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week termed the blockade as unislamic and
equated it with the "Death penalty" for the people of Qatar. Like
that of other anti Assad players, Qatar's objectives in Syria were severely
undermined. What Qatar rightly deserved and earned from her role is Syria is
the blame and shame of funding extremist forces. Ironically, blame comes from
the nations and regimes who themselves are the biggest supporters and promoters
of extremism. Qatar's support to Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas is being
exploited by media and offered as a proof of Qatar's support to terrorism. World seems to have forgotten that Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are both
democratically elected entities, the idea (Democracy) about which US is bragging all around all the
time. In recent past when all of them were backing what they called rebels in
Syria then there seemed to be no problem with Qatar but when it came to Muslim
Brotherhood which Egypt and even Saudi Arabia recognizes as a potential threat
to their setup, suddenly Qatar becomes a bad guy. Fact of the matter is that
the decision of Gulf states to isolate
Qatar has not to do much with terrorism
as it does with Qatar's relationship with Iran.
Iran and Qatar have little in common in terms of geography, politics, and ideology. During Iran-Iraq war,
Saddam Hussain enjoyed full support of Qatar, In Syria and Iraq, Qatar is part
of US led coalition forces fighting Asad and even in Yemen Qatar till recently
was part of Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Houthi rebels- dubbed as Iranian
allies.
It is only by the force of circumstances on one hand and the
strategic and policy preferences of their leaders on the other hand that Iran
and Qatar have been drawn together. Tehran and Doha share the world’s largest
natural gas structure (called North Field in Qatar and South Pars in Iran)
which serves as a major area of mutual interest between the two Persian Gulf
states. The full utilization of hydrocarbon resources requires a high level of
cooperation between Tehran and Doha for which Qatar needs to maintain cordial
relations with Iran which is not acceptable to US and Saudi Arabia.
Another reason for Qatar not to fall inline with GCC in
confronting Iran is the strait of Hormuz in Persian gulf which is largely
controlled by Iran and in case of any eventuality, its closure by Iran cannot be overruled. As Qatar is
fully dependent on strait of Hormuz for her oil and gas exports, Doha cannot
afford its closure.
Qatar being the member Nation of GCC, Saudi Arabia expects
Qatar to place her individual and national interests after the bigger cause of
GCC which is to counter ever increasing influence of Iran in the region,
thereby safeguarding the interests of Zionist regime of Israel so that they
continue to remain in good books of US . The crisis came to surface after US President
Donald Trump’s visit to the region last month that was marked by signing of a
record $110-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. US Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson was quoted as saying "The visit was aimed at getting Saudi
Arabia and other Arab nations in the region to stand in unity with Israel and
confront Iran". Incidentally, United
States after putting all the blame of
funding the extremists in Syria on Qatar, has at the same time signed
with her a deal for the purchase of F-15 fighter jets with an initial cost of
$12bn.
For Saudi Arabia, Qatar's crime is that she is
not sufficiently opposed to Iran and
because of this Qatar does not qualify to be the part of any of the alliance and even may be punished
further. With Turkey performing joint
military drills with Qatar and with the
presence of US Airbase in Qatar, it remains to be seen whether the diplomacy
prevails or God forbid world may have to witness another blood bath like the
one in Yemen
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