Disarming states of contradiction

Peter Jones explains why the arms industry is the winner out of complex conflicts in the Middle East

DONALD Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia sparked conflict between his host nation and tiny neighbouring Qatar, on paper the wealthiest country in the world.

Other Gulf oil states have rallied behind Saudi Arabia, despite the contradiction that all of them subscribe to the ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam sometimes known as Wahhabiism and to date have been united in their war on ISIS and the conflict in Yemen. In addition, they host key military bases, including those used by Australian forces involved in the US coalition waging war on ISIS.

So why have they fallen out and why are these tiny ministates so wealthy and the recipients of lucrative arms exports from the West?

Two conflicts in the Middle East have drawn them into this mass of contradictions: Saudi Arabia’s long conflict with Iran and the war on ISIS. This is despite the fact some financial support for ISIS comes from wealthy individual donors in these Gulf states.

Saudi Arabia is the heartland of Sunni Islam and its ultraconservative form, Wahhabiism, which has been taken to a more extreme form by ISIS.

Its effective ruler, the new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, represents generational change. However, he has stepped up the war on the Shi’a rebels now controlling neighbouring Yemen, where 17 million people face famine and a cholera epidemic. He talks openly about a possible war with Iran, again as in Yemen, using sophisticated planes and weapons primarily supplied by the US and Britain.

Iran sees itself as the flag bearer of Shi’a Islam and supports the regimes in Syria and Iraq as well as the Shi’a minorities in the Gulf States and the Houthi rebels now controlling Yemen. However, like Saudi Arabia, Iran is in a transitional stage as jockeying for replacing ageing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is under way.

So where do these tiny mini-states stand in this looming conflict between the two largest regional powers?

Kuwait is the oldest of the Gulf oil states, mostly remembered for being invaded by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1990, triggering the Second Gulf War. Kuwait is a former British protectorate that has been independent since 1961 and has a Sunni majority, with just over a third of the population being Shi’a. Like all the Gulf states, it depends on migrant workers, many are Muslim but not citizens.

South of Kuwait is the small island state of Bahrain, independent since 1971. About 70-75 per cent of the population are Shi’a. After the Arab Spring broke out in 2011, the Government called in military support from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to keep control. The West kept quiet on this repression of human rights because the US Fifth Fleet is based there, while the ruling Khalifa family, in power since 1783, are key US allies as well as Sunni Muslim.

Next to Bahrain, is Qatar, linked geographically to Saudi Arabia, but independent since 1971 and with 90 per cent of the population Sunni Muslim. It has a population of 2.6 million but only 12 per cent are Qatari citizens.

The falling out is principally because the ruling family decided some years ago to develop a more independent foreign policy, involving cooperation with Iran, which shares its rich underwater oil and gas fields. In 1995, Qatar set up the independent broadcasting service, Al Jazeera. All other Gulf states have demanded it shut down Al Jazeera, which was originally set up to offer an alternative news service to Western media that tend to ignore news from developing countries to focus on European and American stories. Qatar is friendly with Turkey and offers support to the Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Egypt. This is why the military regime in Cairo has ganged up on Qatar along with the other Gulf States.

Despite being willing to sell $110 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump has been willing to sell 36 older F-15 fighters to Qatar, worth $12 billion. Not surprisingly, this has confused US State Department officials, given that on his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, he came out in support of the Saudis against Qatar.

The United Arab Emirates are made up of seven states, though most people are only aware of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the largest of the Gulf States by area and population, with almost 10 million. British involvement goes back to the early 19th century when they were known as the Trucial States. They became independent in 1971 when Britain withdrew from East of Suez after 1966. The UAE is different from other Gulf States insofar as the seven states constitute a federation with a Supreme Council of Rulers and a president chosen from among their number.

Australian military forces are still based there while supporting the US war on

ISIS, though other troops are stationed with US forces at the Al Udeid base in Qatar, which they started using in 2003. In May, the US also announced the sale of $2 billion of missiles to the UAE.

The Saudi-led alliance has placed impossible demands on Qatar as part of the regional conflict with Iran. While Qatar gets support from Turkey and Iran it can survive. However, the future of the FIFA World Cup in 2022 seems unsure, especially with criticism of working conditions on the new stadium by rights groups like Amnesty International.

Predictably, the only real winner in this complex situation is the global arms trade and in particular the US military-industrial complex, still by far the world’s largest arms exporter.

As for Australia, it seems we are itching to join in.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said last month that Australia could create a weapons export industry if we overcame our reflexive response that it could not be done. He wanted Australia to become a major arms exporter on par with Britain, France and Germany and use military exports to cement relationships with countries in volatile regions such as the Middle East.

Nearly a century ago, English writer Aldous Huxley, observed: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”

If we pour more arms into this volatile region, we will only have ourselves to blame if the conflict escalates.

The weapons already supplied to the Middle East are already fuelling the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Hobart teacher Peter D. Jones has a Graduate Diploma in Islamic Studies and a PhD from the University of New England and has long travelled in Muslim countries in Africa and Asia.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach

ALDOUS HUXLEY