Thursday, 8 June 2017

About the Qatari matter




It may be useful to tell some information about the ruling regime in Qatar after the vision became common and clear at our brother countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain… a friend of mine interested in the Arab affairs in general and that of the Gulf countries in specific was kind enough to tell me about those information during a long conversation we had.

Of those information, at the seventies of the last century, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani – then-crown prince and father of the current ruler – was called Gaddafi of the Gulf area as he was claiming to believe in the Arab-national ideology since the sixties and afterwards – like many others – he adopted the political Islam ideology… maybe due to the heavy presence of muslim brotherhood in Qatar.

It also happened that Hamad got married to Sheikha Moza; daughter of Nasser al-Mossnad, the most famous opposition figure in the history of Qatar… reconciliation was done and Nasser and prominent figures of his tribe came back to Qatar… with this marriage concluded, the two parties agreed on common matters that were in the background of their political vision and ambitions that do not go along with their socio-economic state and the demographic and geo-political reality of Qatar… it is evident that the coup of Hamad against his father in 1995 was blessed by Washington and with the main support of Hamad bin Jassim bin Gabir; later became minister of foreign affairs and prime minister.

The second piece of information is that the Qatari-Saudi relations were usually tensioned since senior King Abdel-Aziz Al Sa’oud considered Qatar – that adopts Wahhabism – an affiliate to Saudi Arabia… Abdel-Aziz asked the British to include Qatar in the Saudi Kingdom in 1913… demarcation of the borders was done in 1965 and Saudi Arabia considered that vast areas of its land was cut due to this demarcation… later, Saudi Arabia regained those areas on the eve of the second Gulf War in January, 1991… that led to cutting the land territory connecting Qatar to the UAE and limiting the land borders of Qatar to Saudi Arabia alone… Qatar tried to oust the Saudis from those areas that Saudi Arabia regained back in what was known as the borderline Al-Khofous territory incident in 1992… but the Qataris failed.

At the end of 1995, there was a coup attempt to bring the father Khalifa to power once again but the attempt was no success… Hamad accused Saudi Arabia of involvement in that attempt and dropped the nationality of all members of “Al Morra” tribe which he accused of participating in such coup attempt and expelled them out to the Saudi Arabia… since then, the Qatari regime considered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a main threat to its security and safety… and so, in 2003, Hamad the father welcomed the accommodation of the American troops and United States Central Command in the two bases of Al-‘Odaid and as-Silya after their agreement to stay in the air-base of Emir Sultan in the Kingdom came to an end… in the same context, the father made ties with Israel in order to reinforce his relation with Washington.

And since every political and economic system requires an ethical cover to promote its ideology, especially if that cover was religious, muslim brotherhood became the important ally for the Qatari regime… an ally that provides the religious cover for the Qatari policies and behaviors including the relations with Israel and also the presence of American military bases over the Qatari land.

The third piece of information has to do with Al-Jazeera channel… as it was an Israeli idea that was included in the project of Shimon Perez of the “New Middle East”… according to authenticated information, such channel was first proposed to Jordan to host along with providing it with the funding needed to contribute to supporting the ailing economy of Jordan but King Hussein apologized because it was far beyond the capacity of his country… then it was proposed to Qatar which welcomed it provided that the funding should be independent especially that the offer came during the hottest times of its disputes with Saudi Arabia.

With the escalating boom in oil and gas prices in 2000, Qatar found itself swimming in an ocean of wealth enough to fulfill the capacity to buy anything and everything… that thing was not done away from the administration of George W. Bush that planned to spread the creative chaos… Al-Jazeera channel was ready media wise along with the huge financial readiness… also, muslim brotherhood through their international organization was a main tool in such mission.

The plan of the Big Middle East – according to the term Condoleezza Rice used – became the umbrella uniting Qatar with muslim brotherhood beneath… and so, if the Americans let go of this plan after the Israeli consent, then the role of Qatar and muslim brotherhood will end… and now comes the key question: will Israel agree to stop the plan aiming at fragmenting the region before fulfilling its whole set of targets, especially that Egypt is still standing and rising?

A last piece of information that is an almost true leakage says that Hamad; father of Tamim, is still supervising himself the foreign policy of Qatar, Al-Jazeera and the newspapers and study centres that Azmi Beshara and Waddah Khanfar; ex-manager of Al-Jazeera are establishing… of the examples of those media outlets, the newspaper of Al-Arabi Al-Gadid, Huffington Post Arabia, Middle East Eye with David Hearst as its editor-in-chief… and others.

So, we are standing against a map full of security, media and political entanglements… a map complicated on the Qatari tribal level as disputes are old and still recurring… also against unlimited amounts of money under the control of the Qatari rulers… for this reason, the stronger the complications and entanglements, the stronger the fall down if it took place… such fall will lead to noticeable changes and maybe root ones in the course of actions in the enflaming arcs of fire in the Arab land… the northern arc extending from Iraq to Syria and Lebanon… the southern arc extending in Yemen and Soudan… and the western one extending in Libya and Tunisia… as wherever we look, we see the Qatari fingers messing either directly or indirectly.

I have been and still am trying to figure out an answer for a question asking: why has a country like Qatar, with its geo-political situation, limited demographic composition and fragile social structure, adopted such orientation?... was behind this an advice from some experts, including some Egyptian names that worked in consulting positions inside the Qatari royal court at the end of the last century?

The essence of this advice is that the only way for Qatar to continue is to adopt the Israeli model as an example… to be a strong dagger stabbed in the back of strong neighbors… and this dagger shall be in the hands of allies like the US and Israel… but maybe the decisive paradox is that this “dagger” thought it has the right to snatch whatever it wants from above the table or even turn the whole table upside down… forgetting that there is eventually a hand holding it… and once this hand gets this dagger out, the dagger becomes nothing but a worthless piece of junk.

I believe the answer to the question became clear now.

Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar



This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on June 8, 2017.

To see the original article, go to:


#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #Qatar

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