It is indeed the biggest crises in the Middle East in years when Qatar was diplomatically cut off by five of its neighbouring Arab countries to be followed by Maldives, Mauritius, Mauritania and Libya’s eastern government. The reason being its continued support to terrorism especially the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is considered as a terrorist organisation. What hit the entire world was utter shock and surprise because Qatar was always thought to be a liberal and ‘liveable’ country when compared to the countries currently undergoing unrests in the Middle East. Qatar has a huge expat population from other Asian countries including India and Nepal.
Qatar gave the world Al Jazeera TV Network the news channel and Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways is one of the biggest airlines in the world and Doha the capital is a major transit point for air travellers. Therefore it is still quite puzzling for many as to why the sudden diplomatic rift, with some of the countries giving hardly two weeks time to Qatari nationals and diplomats to leave their country. Some analysts have pointed out the country’s continued closeness to Iran that many of the other neighbouring countries including Saudi Arabia considers as a threat will be one of the reasons. Moreover, though it maintains a neutral stand between Saudi Arabia and Iran, its closeness to the Shia Iran is disliked by most of its neighbours especially Saudi Arabia. On the other hand the predominantly Sunni Qatar is also accused of supporting many of the Islamists groups in Syria and Libya and it also currently hosts the spiritual leader of the Muslim brotherhood. In spite of its liberal and modern image, its foreign policy is accused of funding terror groups.
Fingers are also pointed to the visit of the US President Donald Trump just few days back to Saudi Arabia where he announced $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis. The plot thickens and the US now seems to be in the best of positions to be the mediator. In that way it will have more say in the region in it’s stand against Iran. There are already indications that the first toll will be the state owned Al Jazeera TV Network, its biggest PR campaign in the region. The US also has its own share of misadventures especially more often in the Middle East in recent times. Its policy of shock and awe did not work has backfired in many instances. One incorrect move and the current issue will cause another major unrest in the region.
