Trump’s Qatar crisis
TINY Qatar, the mouse that roared, has now managed to enrage the larger part of the Arab world and defy the newly-minted Middle East expert, US President Donald Trump.
This month, an angry alliance of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, with some support from the puppet regimes of war-torn Libya and Yemen, declared an embargo of Qatar for “supporting terrorism”. They cut off delivery of food and goods to the sandy peninsula on which Qatar sits, boycotted its oil and gas exports, and denied their airspace to Qatar’s airline. There is talk of a US and Arab coup aimed at “regime change” in Qatar.
Veteran Middle East-watchers are used to endless spats between the region’s rulers, but this one was a big deal. It seems that Trump, who recently visited Saudi Arabia, had orchestrated the boycott and isolation of Qatar to show its upstart rulers who was boss. His pro-Israeli advisers devised the plan and Trump backed it publicly.
Here was another example of a US leader, with only comic book knowledge of the region, mucking things up royally. The “terrorists” Qatar is accused of supporting were the Muslim Brotherhood, a venerable, moderate movement dedicated to welfare and education. After the Muslim Brotherhood won a democratic election in Egypt, the Saudis and Israel colluded to overthrow it. The result was the US-backed military dictatorship of “Field Marshall” al-Sisi.
Trump apparently green-lighted the siege of Qatar because it owns the outspoken al-Jazeera TV network, the only really outspoken media group outside of Israel. Qatar’s ruler, Sheik Hamid alThani, has been the principal supporter of the Palestinians in Gaza and their political arm, Hamas, which is branded “terrorists” by the US and Israel.
Qatar has long been friendly with the Afghan resistance movement Taliban, which is also branded “terrorists” by its foes. By contrast, Qatar has been an important backer of Syria’s antiAssad rebels – who are also supported by the US, Britain, France and Turkey.
While Trump of Arabia was blasting the Qataris as “terrorists”, a word of no meaning whatsoever but beloved of propagandists, the Pentagon’s top brass were tearing their hair out. Qatar just put in a US$12 billion order for US F-15 jets, keeping its production lines, that were slated to be scrapped, open and running, creating 60,000 American jobs.
Qatar is home to one of the most important US military bases in the Middle East, al-Udaid, where 10,000 US servicemen are stationed. US warplanes from Udaid fly missions against IS insurgents, into Afghanistan, and to Libya. Only the US base at Incerlik, Turkey, rivals al-Udaid. Udaid played a key role in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. France also runs air operations out of al-Udaid and a base in Abu Dhabi.
Qatar has only 313,000 nativeborn citizens and 2.3 million expatriates. Residents joke that it’s the best-run Indian city in Asia.
Indians keep the city operating and provide much of its technical cadres. As in all the Gulf States, known to their former British rulers as “Trucial States”, armies of pitifully-paid coolies do the grunt work.
Still, Qatar enjoys the world’s highest per capita income. It’s a worthy example of how to put oil money to work properly. When I was a columnist for its leading newspaper, I always marvelled at the order and discipline of the kingdom as compared with its neighbours.
Qatar has been the most progressive, modern-thinking Gulf state. Its rulers, the al-Thani family, have tried to support moderate, progressive movements in the Arab world and Afghanistan with money and media support.
Qatar’s efforts at modernising are being met with furious opposition by the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain. Trump’s green-lighting this foolish venture shows how poorly informed he is. The other Gulf States should grow up and stop acting like feuding Bedouins.
Interestingly, Turkey, an old friend of Qatar, just announced more of its troops will go to the sheikdom, where Ankara has a small base. The other actors in this tempest in a teapot will think twice before defying the Turks who have Nato’s second biggest army.
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