Above, Qatari leader and Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.
Above, a supermarket in Qatar.
Some supermarkets in Doha have almost run out of dairy products as scores of people waited in checkout lines and stocked up on beans and other staples.
The rift has provoked confusion and anxiety in Qatar, an energy, banking and construction hub, which is home to 2.7 million people -- most of them foreigners. Some Qataris were outraged by the state of affairs.
Authorities tried to calm nerves on Wednesday, releasing a video showing a shop with shelves brimming with food and reassuring Qataris - the wealthiest people in the world per capita - that their quality of life would not be hit.
But the row over Qatar's support for Islamist groups has disrupted many aspects of life.
Thousands of Qataris have been unable to board flights to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and cut off from relatives in those countries, in a region where cross-border marriages are common and Gulf rulers refer to each other as "brothers".
In further signs of Qatar's isolation on Thursday, the United Arab Emirates' national postal group said it had suspended all services to Qatar and the UAE aviation authority said it had closed air space for traffic to and from Doha.
"My mother who is originally from the UAE cannot visit her sick mother, needless to say we will not be able to see my uncles," said Mohammed, a Qatar University professor, who gave his first name only.
He said a Saudi friend of his living in Qatar had sent his child to Riyadh for a family visit before the embargo and now he does not know what to do. Qatari students in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been told to leave before finishing exams, he said.
"The issue is presented to the West as a diplomatic spat ... the reality is far worse," a Qatari diplomat said. "It is a blockade! Like that of Berlin. A declaration of war. A political, economic and social aggression."
Even if the dispute is settled, Qataris and other Gulf Arabs worry that the bitter spat which has seen both sides denounce each other as "enemies" and "traitors" of the Gulf has sown divisions and hostility that will linger on.
"I think it is three things we are scared of: family ties being severed, possible military action and losing the spirit of the Gulf Cooperation Council," said Mohammed, the professor, referring to the regional political and economic union set up in 1981.
Slogans against and in support of Qatar in Arabic have dominated Twitter, which is hugely popular in the region, and have grown steadily more nationalistic and aggressive in tone.
The fact that Qatar's leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has yet to speak publicly since ties were cut, has made some Qataris uneasy. Kuwait's ruler, who is mediating in the crisis, asked him to postpone a speech to the nation earlier this week to give dialogue efforts a chance.
"Of course we are all waiting for him to speak," said Sara al-Sulaiti, a Qatari who works in public relations.
"The emir is wise not to speak," said Faraj, a Qatari engineer working for a telecommunications company. "We know that he has a plan for us. Unlike in our neighboring countries we have deep faith in our leaders."
For low-income foreign laborers, the biggest concerns are possible food price rises and job cuts if projects are stalled because of construction materials being held up at the Saudi border.
Qatar is home to more than a million migrant laborers from countries including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, many of whom for around 1,000 riyals ($275) a month toil on construction projects including football stadiums and a metro system being built for the 2022 World Cup.
"I have never seen Qatari citizens stocking up on frozen chicken and long-life milks," said Anup Manoj, an Indian man who works as a cleaner in Doha's City Center Mall, where many shops no longer stock milk packaged by Saudi Arabia's Almarai Co, the most affordable kind of milk in Qatar.
"They have money to stock up. But when they stock up it's laborers and lower income workers who are going to suffer."
Above, a supermarket in Qatar.
Some supermarkets in Doha have almost run out of dairy products as scores of people waited in checkout lines and stocked up on beans and other staples.
The rift has provoked confusion and anxiety in Qatar, an energy, banking and construction hub, which is home to 2.7 million people -- most of them foreigners. Some Qataris were outraged by the state of affairs.
Authorities tried to calm nerves on Wednesday, releasing a video showing a shop with shelves brimming with food and reassuring Qataris - the wealthiest people in the world per capita - that their quality of life would not be hit.
But the row over Qatar's support for Islamist groups has disrupted many aspects of life.
Thousands of Qataris have been unable to board flights to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and cut off from relatives in those countries, in a region where cross-border marriages are common and Gulf rulers refer to each other as "brothers".
In further signs of Qatar's isolation on Thursday, the United Arab Emirates' national postal group said it had suspended all services to Qatar and the UAE aviation authority said it had closed air space for traffic to and from Doha.
"My mother who is originally from the UAE cannot visit her sick mother, needless to say we will not be able to see my uncles," said Mohammed, a Qatar University professor, who gave his first name only.
He said a Saudi friend of his living in Qatar had sent his child to Riyadh for a family visit before the embargo and now he does not know what to do. Qatari students in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been told to leave before finishing exams, he said.
"The issue is presented to the West as a diplomatic spat ... the reality is far worse," a Qatari diplomat said. "It is a blockade! Like that of Berlin. A declaration of war. A political, economic and social aggression."
Even if the dispute is settled, Qataris and other Gulf Arabs worry that the bitter spat which has seen both sides denounce each other as "enemies" and "traitors" of the Gulf has sown divisions and hostility that will linger on.
"I think it is three things we are scared of: family ties being severed, possible military action and losing the spirit of the Gulf Cooperation Council," said Mohammed, the professor, referring to the regional political and economic union set up in 1981.
Slogans against and in support of Qatar in Arabic have dominated Twitter, which is hugely popular in the region, and have grown steadily more nationalistic and aggressive in tone.
The fact that Qatar's leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has yet to speak publicly since ties were cut, has made some Qataris uneasy. Kuwait's ruler, who is mediating in the crisis, asked him to postpone a speech to the nation earlier this week to give dialogue efforts a chance.
"Of course we are all waiting for him to speak," said Sara al-Sulaiti, a Qatari who works in public relations.
"The emir is wise not to speak," said Faraj, a Qatari engineer working for a telecommunications company. "We know that he has a plan for us. Unlike in our neighboring countries we have deep faith in our leaders."
For low-income foreign laborers, the biggest concerns are possible food price rises and job cuts if projects are stalled because of construction materials being held up at the Saudi border.
Qatar is home to more than a million migrant laborers from countries including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, many of whom for around 1,000 riyals ($275) a month toil on construction projects including football stadiums and a metro system being built for the 2022 World Cup.
"I have never seen Qatari citizens stocking up on frozen chicken and long-life milks," said Anup Manoj, an Indian man who works as a cleaner in Doha's City Center Mall, where many shops no longer stock milk packaged by Saudi Arabia's Almarai Co, the most affordable kind of milk in Qatar.
"They have money to stock up. But when they stock up it's laborers and lower income workers who are going to suffer."
Apparently what Trump and the
Saudis discussed is having a “huge” impact in the Persian Gulf States, Qatar in
particular. Did Trump open the door and offer no objection to Saudi Arabia and its allies to act against Qatar? As the Qatar crisis escalates it could further de-stabilize the volatile Middle East.
Saudi Arabia and its allies
continued to ratchet up the rhetoric against Qatar today with the announcement of a
new Qatar-specific terrorism list, claiming
that the new list proves Qatar isn’t fighting against terrorism, as it has
publicly promised, but is instead secretly supporting terrorism.
The list includes 59 people and 12
entities. The list includes at least two people who are accused of being
terrorist financiers, and both of whom Qatar had already imposed sanctions
against themselves. Among the rest of the people on the list, only a handful
are actually from Qatar, with many of them people from Egypt, Libya, and
Bahrain.
Though a lot of the details about what
the people on the list are accused of are unclear, the list appears to be heavy
on members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are vilified in Egypt
for being part of the elected government the military junta ousted, and
Bahraini Shi’ites, who the Bahrain royal family are mad at for demanding equal
rights.
Tensions between Qatar and the rest of the
GCC center heavily on Qatar’s state media supporting calls for democratic
reforms during the Arab Spring, something which didn’t sit well with the Saudis
or the other Gulf Arab states. This is a continuation of the effort to rebrand
such support as tantamount to supporting terrorism.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are
allegedly protecting the Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani inside his
palace, Egyptian sources said on
Wednesday. The sources added that the Revolutionary Guards arrived in Qatar
under the cover of training.
Yesterday’s 24-hour ultimatum by Saudi Arabia requiring Qatar to
make massive changes to their foreign policy and shut down their state media
forever has come and gone, with Qatari officials insisting that there will be
“no surrender” amid the ongoing dispute and that they won’t
compromise their sovereignty.
Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain all severed ties with
Qatar several days ago, with the split heavily centered around long-standing
resentment of Qatar’s state media backing democratic reform during the Arab
Spring.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani today made clear
that they are totally unwilling to change their foreign policy position over the
ongoing blockade by the Saudis and their allies, and that they are prepared to
live under embargo forever, noting they have the backing of the rest of the
international community.
The Saudi demands sought Qatar to agree
to wholesale changes in their foreign policy as well as to make a public,
irrevocable pledge to always take the foreign policy position consistent with
the GCC, which is generally just the position of the Saudi kingdom.
Qatar’s
positions are generally not wildly different from some other GCC member
nations, though they have the most in common Oman. The demands to sever all
ties with Iran and expel everyone that the Saudis believe are “hostile” to the
GCC would be a dangerous precedent to set, and Oman and Kuwait are both trying
to help negotiated some sort of solution short of this total surrender.
And
while President Trump made a point of praising the Saudi move against Qatar
initially, he too is now offering to negotiate a deal.
There
is still no indication of what the Saudis intend to do about Qatar ignoring the
ultimatum, but some predicted yesterday that they would respond with a military
invasion. It seems Saudi Arabia views itself now as the big bully in the
region.
Rumors about a massive $1 billion ransom payment made by the Qatari
government to recover a large number of hostages held in Iraq have been
floating around for months. The sudden split between Qatar and a number of
other regional powers has brought it back to the fore, however, with Egypt calling for a
UN inquiry into the allegation.
26 Qatari hostages were held for nearly a year and a half by a Shi’ite militia
faction in Iraq. The
men were in the country at a falcon-hunting camp, and included members of the
Qatari royal family. The militia demanded $1 billion for their release.
It’s
never been publicly disclosed how much they paid as part of the negotiations,
but speculation was that it was a significant amount, in the tens of millions
of dollars by most estimates. Few people believe that the entire $1 billion
ransom was paid.
Any ransom at all being paid is now an
issue Egypt and other nations angry at Qatar are trying to use as a sign that
they were “appeasing” terrorists and ended up funding them to the tune of a lot
of money. That said, payments of ransoms
for high-value hostages have been common in Iraq and Syria during the war on
terror, and Qatar is hardly alone in biting the bullet and getting people
released. It’s an issue that likely would not be an issue but for the unrelated
tension ongoing.
American analysts published an opinion piece in Newsweek
magazine raising fears of
American presence so close to the Islamist Hamas group in Doha.
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