Q&A: Crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar!

Question: Trump said at a press conference with his Romanian counterpart in the White House on 9/6/2017: (…key players in the region agreed to stop supporting terrorism, whether it be financial, military or even moral support. The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior. So we had a decision to make: Do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided, along with Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding…) (Al-Youm As-Sabi’,9/6/2017) Does this mean that the crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was driven by Trump? If this is true, why is Trump taking this step, knowing that America’s largest base in the region is in Qatar? The media also attributed the cause of the political dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Qatar’s position on Iran, the Brotherhood, or Hamas. How do we understand Trump’s statement in light of what is stirred in the media? And where is this crisis heading? Will it lead to the withdrawal or expulsion of Qatar from the Gulf group? And thank you.

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Answer:

First: yes, the driver of the crisis that has taken place is America. In other words, it is the US President Trump, but before I elaborate on that, I start with the last part of the question. Some thought that the reason for the Qatari Gulf crisis, as reported by the media or as promoted, was Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood or its strategic alliance with Iran while others went on to say that the real cause of the crisis was due to an old dispute between the family of Hamad and the family of Zayed that began in the 1970s when the UAE was founded. This led Saudi Arabia to follow its ally, the UAE, to attack Qatar. There are writers that said that the crisis of boycotting Qatar is linked to “Israel”. As an example is the quote from Jake Novak to CNBC:

“On the surface, it’s perfectly accurate to say the stunning rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is all about Iran as the Saudis have become obsessed with stemming Iran’s growing power and influence in the Middle East. But digging a little deeper, it also looks a lot like the singling out of the Qataris at this specific moment has something to do with another country entirely: Israel.” (Arabi 21, 7/6/2017)

But thinking and analyzing deeper everything that happened exclude these things; they are not new, and Qatar has been practicing them for a long time, and they are not renewed these days. Qatar’s closeness to Iran is known and its relationship with Hamas is also famous. Moreover, the impact of the relations between Qatar and the usurping Jewish state of Palestine and the relations between these and Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also not hidden, and even tribal relations do not reach this level of escalation. All these things existed before the crisis and still do after the crisis; therefore, they are not the real reasons.

Second: The real reason, as I mentioned at the beginning, is America or Trump and to realize this, we review the following things:

1- Since the beginning of this century, Qatar has become a major “kitchen” for English politics in the region. Al Jazeera has become a major media platform to disrupt US policy and to attack America’s agents in the region. Another factor is the political money which has become a great political magnet to attract political forces. Qatar has made, using these two tools, a great success especially in the Islamic movements that are described as “moderate” in Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and others, and Doha in Qatar became a haven for leaders of these movements and a center for planning and distortion of the American policy and America’s agents. And as in the habit of the British to pretend that it is with America while it seeks to distort things for it, Qatar has mastered this British game and hosted early, since 1991, Al Udeid American base which is the headquarters of the American Central Command and a strategic air base from which US aircraft launch to spread killing and destruction among Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. This was at a time when Britain was building its political “kitchen” in Qatar until it was completed and appeared at the turn of this century.

Then, the role of Qatar, as a servant of Britain, developed smoothly according to the drawn plan. The US was troubled by this role of Qatar to the point of distress that made George W. Bush, the son, consider bombing Al Jazeera Channel according to news published by DW on 22/11/2005:

(British newspaper “The Daily Mirror” on Tuesday quoted a “top secret” memo to the premiership of the British government from President George W. Bush that in 2004 he thought of bombing the headquarters of “Al Jazeera” satellite channel in Qatar) (DW 22/11/2005). This has been the position in the Gulf until King Salman came to power in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia stood with America, and only then the Obama administration decided to entrust its agents Salman with an important role in the region to be, on the one hand, in contrast to the role of Qatar and dominating it and, on the other hand, in line with the new American plans. Hence, he has strengthened the role of America’s agents and has taken the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to a point that threatens Qatar’s role entirely. And after the new US President Donald Trump came to office early this year, the US policy has become more severe and blunt in dealing with many international issues, including Qatar.

2- During Trump’s visit to Riyadh on 20-21/5/2017, he gathered 50 rulers around him and Salman was beside him. By hinting at Qatar’s support for terrorism, Qatar realized through British feeds that America has started serious steps to elevate the Saudi role and to blow out the Qatari and English role in the Gulf region. As a response, the Qatari statements were made two days after the return of the Emir of Qatar from Riyadh. The Qatar News Agency quoted the statements of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Al-Thani, on 23/5/2017: “What Qatar is exposed to from an unfair campaign coincided with the US president’s visit to the region aimed at linking it to terrorism … We condemn the accusation of supporting terrorism … no one has the right to accuse us of terrorism  because they classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. He called on Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain to review their anti-Qatar position…There is a strong and solid relationship with America despite the current negative trends of the US administration with our confidence that the status quo will not continue because of judicial investigations against irregularities and transgressions of the US president, and Al Udeid base  represents immunity to Qatar from the ambitions of neighboring countries, but it is the only opportunity for America to own military influence in the region and Qatar does not know terrorism and extremism, and it would like to contribute to the achievement of a just peace between Hamas, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and (Israel) due to the continuous communication with the parties. Qatar has succeeded in building strong relations with both the United States and Iran at the same time because Iran represents a regional and Islamic weight that cannot be ignored and it is not wise to escalate things with it “. These statements indicate that Qatar accuses Trump of being behind the campaign against Qatar and accusing it of sponsoring or supporting terrorism. The statements came immediately after the Trump summit with the representatives of the existing regimes in the Islamic world in which Trump was keen to show his success in leading these regimes towards American goals and American Obedience. Trump said that some countries at this summit, referred to Qatar, sponsor terrorism. Thus, Qatar’s statements are tantamount to a response to Trump as it wants to drown him and hopes that he is toppled because of the judicial investigations against him.

3- Saudi Arabia’s collection of 55 kings, presidents and leaders (of ignorance and damage) of the Gulf and Arab and Islamic countries represented the Saudi willingness to follow the American plan to show Saudi‘s leadership in the region. This was an unmistakable signal from Washington which wants to put the oil reserves at its disposal under the pretext of the Iranian threat on the one hand and to extinguish the flame of British influence on the Gulf states by making the Saudi leadership dominant and making the rest of the Gulf states walk behind Saudi Arabia, i.e., behind the American policy. Thus, Saudi Arabia was not going to tolerate those who stand against its leadership in the region, and its eyes were open to Qatar and was waiting for an event to put Qatar under fire. Therefore, it reacted harshly to the Qatari statements against Saudi Arabia and America that were published by Qatar News Agency on 23/5/2017. Despite Qatar‘s apology, and showing that the statement on the site of the Qatari agency has been exposed to piracy, but Saudi Arabia did not accept the Qatari narrative, but it saw the statements as a confirmation of Qatar’s rejection of the Saudi policy and the role  America  given to Salman, and then the crisis began. Saudi Arabia was bold and announced severing relations with Qatar; It showed assertiveness against Qatar due standing against the Saudi leadership of the Gulf, and a reflection of the seriousness of Trump’s adminstration positions. Saudi Arabia’s steps were severe against Qatar and has surpassed the level on 05/03/2014 to withdraw ambassadors from Qatar which showed what looks like a siege on Qatar. To have greater influence and following the American way, came the Saudi shocking steps; Qataris were only given 48 hours to leave its territories.

And in harmony with the American method of shock, parallel to the Saudi moves and coinciding with it, Egypt sent back Qatar commercial aircraft and did not allow it to enter its territory without  prior warning and so did other countries that are allied with Saudi Arabia against Qatar.

It seems that Qatar was shocked by these decisions of its boycott and it did not expect them. Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, said in an interview with the BBC on 6/6/ 2017 that “the measures taken against his country were shocking, and what took place was ” a collective punishment by three countries in this region that have tried to impose a blockade on Qatar and its people …” Qatar cannot be seen as bold in challenging America or America’s agents, like Saudi Arabia, unless there is a big country that supports it and stands behind it to do so, which is of course Britain, that Qatar follows its policy in secret, but rather openly! The British aim is to disrupt America and to thwart its plans to tighten control of the region, especially the Gulf region, and so it instructed its agents in Qatar to do so. The British did not expect the reaction to be so shocking as if it were expecting the withdrawal of ambassadors like in 2014, and things end without great impact, especially that Qatar uses the existence of a large US base there as an immunity. And so it was stated in the Emir of Qatar‘s statements published by the Qatar News Agency on 23/05/2017, which it deleted later and claimed that its website was hacked: “Al Udeid base represents immunity to Qatar from the ambitions of neighboring countries, but it is the only opportunity for America to own military influence in the region. ” That is, Qatar relies on that to silence America, while it disrupts  and meddles against America and its agents in the region and through its channel Al Jazeera. It gave America the largest base in the region, and therefore it was surprised by these violent actions.

4- Thus, the real reason for the crisis is the new role that Trump has drawn for Salman; to be the ruler of the Gulf region, implementing American policy, and preventing any of the British agents to meddle or disrupt it, and because Qatar is the one that Britain has chosen to carry out the British role of meddling and disrupting the American plans in the region and to implement the British plans, an unprecedented violent escalation against Qatar was taken. America is the driver behind Salman in this crisis and they did not hide it, but they were gradually revealing themselves as being behind what happened and is happening:

Al-Arabiya net reported on 6/6/2017 the statement of a senior US administration official to Reuter’s News Agency:  “A lot of Qatari behavior is quite worrisome not just to our Gulf neighbours but to the US as well”. A senior US administration official told Reuters on Monday that the United States does not want to see a “permanent rift” between the Gulf countries, after several Gulf and Arab countries decided to cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for extremist groups and Iran, the official added: ”We want to bring them in the right direction.”

– The BBC reported on 6/6/2017: (US President Donald Trump hinted at the impact of his recent visit to the Gulf on the decision to sever ties with Qatar, and Trump said he received information during the visit that Doha was financing “extremist ideological” movements.

“During my recent trip to the Middle East, I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar – look!” he wrote.

“So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!” he continued later.

Trump’s statements on 9/6/2017 reveal and confirm that America is behind the Saudi escalation:

(US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Qatar should immediately stop funding terrorism and hoped that the summit in Riyadh would be the beginning of the end of terrorism. “In a press conference with his Romanian counterpart in the White house he said, that Qatar has historically been a state funding terrorism.”(Sky News Arabia, 9/6/2017)

Donald Trump said:   “…key players in the region agreed to stop supporting terrorism, whether it be financial, military or even moral support. The nation of Qatar unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior. So we had a decision to make: Do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided, along with Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding…) (Al-Youm As-Sabi’,9/6/2017)

5- As to the where is this escalation of the Qatari crisis heading, Qatar has fallen under the shock of these strong positions from America’s agents, Saudi Arabia and Egypt whom some British agents such as, the UAE, Bahrain and others, have followed in the British method of distribution of roles as was mentioned in the Answer to a Question we issued on 9/4/2017 where we said: (… Thus it is clear that Britain divides the roles of its agents in a way that may seem contradictory, but in the end achieves the British purposes; it does not put all its agents in one side, especially in countries where multiple cards exist). Qatar, as we have said, did not expect the escalation to be so strong and severe. The Saudi steps were shocking; Qatar’s diplomats were only given 48 hours to leave its territories. In harmony with the American method of shock and parallel to the Saudi steps, Egypt sent back commercial Qatar airplanes  and did not allow them to enter its territory without prior warning, and so did other countries that are allied with Saudi Arabia against Qatar.

6- Does this lead to the withdrawal of Qatar from the Gulf Group? it is possible as the last resort, but it is likely that there is a possibility of solving the crisis. The relevant international powers, namely America and Britain, both are interested in Qatar remaining within the Gulf Group with the different goals that each wants. Asfor America, it wants Qatar, as mentioned above, under the Saudi Abaya (control); that is, to carry out the interests of America without interference or disruption for different reasons. America wants its base to be stable and to carry out its duties without any disruptions. It knows that Britain is behind Qatar, and that through its cunning styles, it can bring many problems to its base if Qatar leaves the Gulf Group. Thus, America wants Qatar to implement its plans and to be part of the Saudi approach while at the same time remaining in the Gulf Group.

Britain also wants to keep Qatar in the Gulf group because, within this group, it can work behind the curtain for the implementation of British plans according to the British approach which has two faces; it shows the friendliness from the front, and stabs in the back. So, what is likely as we mentioned above is that the solution will revolve around stopping a final rupture between Qatar and the Gulf Group unless this happens as the “last resort”, but this is unlikely at least in the foreseeable future for the following reasons:

A- Trump’s speech on 9/6/2017 mentioned above did not leave a room for Qatar to compromise because he addressed it:

“The nation of Qatar unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior. So we had a decision to make: Do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding…” (Al-Youm As-Sabi’,9/6/2017)

And it is known that Qatar does not draw its own policy, but Britain does, and the current British policy does not confront America publicly, especially at this stage which is the stage of exit from the European Union; it is trying to get close to it even on the surface.

B- Trump’s mentality is that of a trader; the financial field aspect impacts it heavily. if Qatar paid what tempts Trump, he might order Salman to accept a compromise! The American researcher Jonathan Kristol a fellow at the World Policy Institute, said: “The money with Donald Trump in the White House is the key to the Saudi, UAE and Bahrain boycot crisis with Qatar”, he explained in his article that only way for Qatar to overcome the Saudi diplomatic and economic pressure is through the American intervention with its Saudi allies by means of money, according to CNN”… (Arabi 21, 6/6/2017).

That is, the most likely view is that there is a solution through Qatar’s money or Qatar’s submission! And we say the most likely is that when Britain believes that its interest at any moment requires the exit of Qatar from the group, it will leave, and if it requires it to stay, it will remain because Qatar does not run its own policy, but Britain does!

7- In conclusion, nothing good is expected from America’s agents in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and those who went along with them on the subject of the boycott; they have handed over the Islamic countries and the people to the enemies of Islam and Muslims in exchange for retaining the seats of power, with bent legs that can break  today or tomorrow. In addition, nothing good is expected from Qatar that runs behind Britain to be given damaging projects against the Muslims; it gives the United States the largest base from which its planes take off killing and destroying the sons of Muslims in Syria and Iraq and destroying their homes. It also promotes peace with a Jewish entity; it made Hamas compromise to resemble Fatah in making concessions. Moreover, it influenced with its poisoned money some of the organizations in Syria to make them enter into negotiations with the criminal regime there. It is deceiving those who have Islamic orientations and tempting them with money and residency to tame them, to make them compromise and to change their directions and ideas. All of this is from the malignant role drawn for it by Britain. Thus it  is naive and near treason to sympathize with this system or with another on the pretext of evil and lesser evil; the issues of the Ummah are not placed in the balance of the evil and the lesser evil, but are measured by the balance of haq (truth) and batil (falsehood). The sons of the Ummah must  reject those treacherous regimes to Allah (swt), His Messenger ﷺ and to the believers, and must work with the loyal workers to topple them and to establish their state; the prophacy (the glad-tiding) of their noble Messenger ﷺ; the righteous Khilafah state (Caliphate) which takes care of their affairs  in safety and security in their home, their transit  and their travel, which brings the Glory to Islam and the Muslims and which humiliates the kaffir colonizers, and then Trump and his henchmen and agents will be hit by a calamity on their bodies and homes.

وَاللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

“And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know”

(Yusuf: 21)

16 Blessed Ramadhan 1438 AH

11/6/2017 CE

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