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Did the M.E just throw Qatar under the bus?
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Big news indeed! To follow with acute attention.
Yes, I saw that this morning as well. Did anybody see this coming? I hadn't heard anything about diplomatic problems between the countries in the last few weeks.-Nihar
www.niharsuthar.com
Whoopee, geopolitics. I love this stuff. Donald Trump meets with Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Statement says: “We signed historic agreements with the Kingdom that will invest almost $400 billion in our two countries" [includes a 110 billion arms renewal that wins the Yemen conflict] and “We can only overcome this evil if ... everyone in this room does their fair share and fulfills their part of the burden.” The Muslim Brotherhood has public support in Qatar, a safe place for them after being chucked out of Egypt. Doha hosts the official headquarters of Hamas. Therefore, two weeks later, cutting air and sea access to Qatar (as in 2009) would be a statement but cutting land access as well, Qatar's main food supply route, suggests this was an agreed execution in the Saudi/US deal. The US gets sales and stability, Saudi Arabia gets protection and more control of the Gulf, Egypt gets a poke at the Muslim Brotherhood in their safe haven, not sure what Bahrain gets but they had to be on board to complete the encirclement. Qatar should ask for mercy soon or their population will have a food crisis and the UN, Oxfam, MSF won't have air, land or sea access to help them. The other loser: The UK, which is the majority recipient or Qatari overseas investment. If Doha implodes, the ruling families will go straight to London.
It is hard to work out what is going on here. I suspect the real issue is that Qatar is friendlier to Iran and the Shia. If it were merely finding al Qaeda, etc, Saudis top the generosity list. The issue is complicated because the US has a major military base in Qatar, and I doubt anyone is going to have a go militarily against Qatar because any mistakes and bombing a US base would have rather wide repercussions. Of course, President Trump could probably defuse this, but does he have the skills?Faith is wrong - the US does not get stability. I am not so sure about the food deal - Iran could presumably ship food across if nobody else would supply it. Further, I can't see the world population being prepared to watch a nation starve just because the Saudis have their nose out of joint. It will be interesting to see what al Jazeera has to say about all this. While the Qatari government will probably have to make concessions to the powerful Saudis, I rather imagine in the long term the saudis will wish they had not opened this Pandora's Box.
Not so subtle these Gulf guys, are they? I guess the move exemplifies the local mentality of how things are done. And with Qatar harboring dudes that aren't viewed favorably in other countries and favoring competing power, I guess the boycotting party has a point with their 'either us or them' approach..
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on Monday morning, following a spat in diplomatic rift in the Gulf region in recent weeks.
I think this is significant news and a big shakeup.