After imposing a naval blockade in the aftermath of the Qatar crisis, one which left the tiny Gulf nation not only politically isolated and with severed ties with its neighbours but also locked out of maritime trade, Saudi Arabia has given Qatar an ultimatum to fulfil 10 conditions.
Onerous List Of Demands
The humongous and non-negotiable list of demands includes that:
Doha must close the broadcaster Al-Jazeera, drastically scale back cooperation with Iran, remove Turkish troops from Qatar’s land, end funding groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and submit to monthly external compliance checks.
The demands limit Qatar’s sovereignty and outsources its foreign policy. The intent is to primarily settle the old scores and force Qatar out of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
America’s Role
It is highly important to understand the motive and the actions of USA in this conspiracy which has shaken the Gulf States.
Donald Trump has given his backing to Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations in their move to isolate Qatar for supporting terrorism, saying funding for “radical ideology” needed to be cut off. The US President’s support for the unprecedented Arab action came despite Qatar’s role as a long-time Washington ally, which hosts the main US military base. The Gulf community has accused Qatar of financing terrorism in countries like Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
What do we learn from America’s foreign policy in the Arab World?
It is yet another blow to Pax Americana, one way or other and the reason is easy to understand. Qatar is an American ally and has cooperated with the Americans in the same way as Libya, Syria, Egypt, and even Iraq. All of these countries had ties with the Americans at one point, and all of them were betrayed in the end. The message is loud and clear.
Being a friend of the United States might be more hazardous than being an enemy.
Jockeying For Power In Middle East
The irony here is that both Saudi Arabia and Qatar fund terror. The Qataris fund it with the help of their gas money while the Saudis do it with their oil money. But they fund different groups.
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Quietly and unbeknownst to most of the unaware public, the Saudis and the Qataris have been lobbying for power in the middle-east through proxy.
The Qataris usually fund the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Nusra, and Hamas. Meanwhile, the Saudis regularly fund groups like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. There’s not only the Sunni/Shia split in the Islamic world but also of the Qatari proxy/Saudi proxy. Both the countries absolutely loathe each other.
Who benefits the most out of this crisis?
The Saudis and the Israelis.
One of the key demands by Saudi Arabia is that Qatar must end all ties with Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The result is that Hamas gets defunded, which is good for the Israelis. And the Saudis get their main competitor in the objective of controlling the Middle East chucked out.
With the backing of the United States and Egypt (Saudi puppet after the Muslim Brotherhood which was a Qatari group that got ousted in a counter-coup by the Saudi-supported military group), UAE and Bahrain (Saudi puppet after they invaded in 2011 with American weapons), Qatar will be completely isolated for a long time or to sum it up, it is completely screwed.
Somewhere, Gadaafi must be laughing his heart out.
Image Credits- Google Images
http://edtimes.in/2017/06/why-saudi-arabia-accusing-qatar-of-terrorism-spits-double-standards/
