Qatar Punished For Its 'Independent' Path

Qatar pays the price for charting an alternative course in the Middle East 
 

- Ajish P. Joy

In December 2015, a hunting party from Qatar arrived at a hunting zone in Iraq’s Muthanna province, 370km southeast of Baghdad. The Iraqi government had assured them that the game reserve was safe. The 26-member group included members from the ruling family. They were, however, kidnapped by Kata’eb Hezbollah, a Shia militant group backed by Iran. Last April, Qatar made a deal with Iran and several militant groups for their release. It apparently involved a huge payout to Iran and the militants, and population swaps involving four villages in Syria. Though Qatar denied that any ransom was paid, its ambassador to Iraq and an emissary of the emir flew to Baghdad on April 15, with 23 sacks full of currencies, worth half a billion dollars. Six days later, the hostages were set free. The payout to Iran angered Saudi Arabia to no end.

About a month later, on May 24, two days after Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, official Qatari websites carried reports criticising the US president, praising Iran, reaffirming Qatar’s friendly ties with Israel and warning about recalling its ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. Qatar denied the reports and said the websites were hacked. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, however, repeated the reports and blocked Qatari media, effectively blacking out the official denial.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced the decision to cut off all diplomatic ties with Qatar, suspend all land, sea and air transport, eject Qataris from their countries and recall their citizens from Qatar. They disallowed Qatari planes to fly over their territories and banned Qatari vessels from their ports. The next day they were joined by the Maldives and the factional governments in Yemen and Libya. The Saudi-led group accused Qatar of backing radical islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.