Qatar: The Gulf Crisis Deepens
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Qatar and its immediate neighbours Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have an alignment that comprises of shared religious, cultural, tribal ethnic, social, political and economic values and principles overlapping territorial boundaries The Escalation of the political crisis in Qatar In June 2017, Qatar’s political crisis began when several countries abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar. These countries included Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. The severing of relations included withdrawing ambassadors, and imposing trade and travel bans. Firstly, a political game is being played out in the region that involves a number of countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE vying to be the most dominant power in the Middle East. In years gone by, the dominant power was none other than Egypt as it was the largest country in the Middle East, but with the increasing corruption and political instability its influence in the region has diminished in recent years. Secondly, to begin with there is a myriad of complicated relations in the Middle East. Historically speaking, Qatari relations with the Emirates have
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been mixed, while they have been outright fractious with Bahrain, that centered on competing territorial claims that were only settled in 2001 after the International Court of Justice’s longest and most complex adjudication case. Moreover, Saudi relations have been complicated by the power of the state partly due to the country until recently having a strong economy and an abundance of gas and oil reserves. Qatar a relative newcomer to the game has witnessed a remarkable rags to riches story. Despite Qatar’s newly found wealth and economic success, its relations with the other Gulf nations has been highly fractious to say the least. In the 1980’s, there were issues that caused political upheaval across the Gulf when the emerging elite in Qatar sought to completely recast bilateral relations. The withdrawal of the Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors from Doha on 5 March 2014 is one of the latest and worst breaks in regional relations in recent times. But for a quarter of a century, Saudi Arabia has been trying to change Qatar’s politics. Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood Since the Arab Spring, Qatar has faced many accusations raging from providing clandestine support to the
Muslim Brotherhood to a desire to control the Middle East. Qatar has assiduously supported a range of typically Islamist groups during the Arab Spring in 2011 and in the aftermath of these tumultuous events. The country’s support has even extended to religious and political ideologues such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most important Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide who left Egypt for Qatar in the early 1960’s. Qardawi is a highly regarded personality who has written in the media in support of Islamist groups in the region and beyond. It should be said that many senior Egyptian Brotherhood leaders who fled Egypt after the Sisi coup have set up base in Qatar. The situation is more complicated by the fact that Al Jazeera has been accused of providing media coverage that is overtly hostile to Egypt and President Sisi. The channel continues to host Egyptian exiles the likes of “Tareq al-Zumr”, the leader of the political faction of the terrorist group “Gama’a al Islamiyya”, who is still resident in Doha and contributes sporadically to the al Jazeera media platform, “ Mahmoud Hussein”, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood; “Amr Darrag”, a