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The United States is now trying to negotiate a solution to the dispute between Qatar and five neighboring Arab countries.
Qatar has tried to be friends with everyone in the region. Also Iran. Arab neighbors don’t like it. Here, people celebrate National Day on December 18. Photo: Naseem Zeitoon, REUTERS / NTB
The Arab countries are gathering more and more in the fight against Iran. It is a battle they have fought largely with the United States and Israel.
The old enmity has been put aside and new alliances have been established to strike the clergy of Tehran as hard as possible.
The United States has led the fight. First, President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. Subsequently, the United States imposed increasingly severe sanctions on Iran.
Accused of supporting terrorism
Qatar has been something of an exception in this dispute. The small energy-rich country has tried to find a kind of middle ground. The Emirate on the Persian Gulf is home to the largest US air base in the region. From here, all air operations from Syria to Afghanistan are controlled.
At the same time, Qatar has maintained diplomatic channels with Iran and contact with various Islamist movements.
The country is also home to the Al-Jazeera news channel. Arab leaders are still told how miserable they are.
Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani is the Emir of Qatar, and therefore the ruler of the country. Here he meets Jared Kushner in Doha. Photo: Qatar News Agency, REUTERS / NTB
Three and a half years ago, five neighboring Arab countries had had enough. They accused Qatar of being too friendly with Iran and supporting terrorism. The emirate denies it.
The enemy receives $ 100 million annually
Overnight, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen imposed a comprehensive boycott of Qatar. Among other things, it meant that citizens were brought home. The exception here was Egypt, which had 250,000 citizens working in Qatar.
It also meant that all transportation (air, road and sea) between the four and Qatar was stopped. It was an acute crisis for Qatar, which only has a border with Saudi Arabia.
But it also had a very unexpected effect. When Qatar could no longer use the airspace over its Arab neighbors, it had to fly over Iran.
And as you may recall, it was Iran that the five countries really wanted to freeze.
The consequence has been that Qatar has paid many millions of dollars in airfare to Iran during the three and a half years that the emirate has been boycotted. According to the New York Times, that works out to about $ 100 million each year.
This is very important money for the Tehran regime, which in the same period has faced increasingly stringent international sanctions, especially from the United States.
Several visits from USA
This unintended side effect is said to be the reason why Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner traveled to Qatar and Saudi Arabia in recent days. The United States hopes the parties will put the dispute aside.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also recently in Qatar and several other countries in the region. Once again, disagreement between Qatar and neighboring countries was on the agenda, according to the US State Department.
Qatar’s foreign minister confirmed on Friday that there are new prospects for resolving the bitter conflict after the Kushner meeting.
The peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan regime were probably also a topic. These are taking place in the Qatari capital Doha, but they have been very slow. It was held as an event when delegates announced Wednesday that after three months of tug of war, they now agree on procedures for negotiations.
They still completely disagree on the order of the long series of difficult topics.
Another Arab country out of place?
Relations with Israel were probably on the agenda as well. In recent months, the Trump administration has been instrumental in getting three Arab countries to bypass the 50-year Arab boycott of Israel. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan have established normal relations with Jerusalem.
Before this fall’s successful negotiations with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as facilitators, only two Arab countries had normal relations with Israel. It was Egypt and Jordan.
The foreign ministers of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates sign the agreement that normalizes relations with Israel outside the White House in Washington. Photo: Tom Brenner, Reuters / NTB
These agreements represent a real change in the Middle East. The purpose of the Arab boycott has been to pressure Israel to negotiate an agreement with the Palestinians. Only then would they normalize their relationship with the Jewish state. When one Arab country after another comes out of this series, it strengthens Israel. Consequently, the Palestinians are weakened.
Trump has announced that several Arab countries will follow suit, and Qatar is among those singled out as a possible candidate.
