Acting as a Saudi Arabia’s middleman, Kuwait has presented a 13-point list to Qatar in order to end the diplomatic crisis. But the demands are insanely extreme that if Qatar agrees, it would be as good as surrendering the small kingdom’s sovereignty to the big bully Saudi. Perhaps that’s what Saudi tries to do – conquering and making Qatar part of its province, without firing a single bullet.

 

Earlier this month, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia demonstrated its supreme authority in the Middle East, leading a group of friends – Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt (later followed by Yemen, Libya, Mauritius and Maldives) – against Qatar. They unfriended the tiny but rich kingdom, severing diplomatic ties as well as suspending air, land, and sea travel to and from the country.

Qatar now has 10 days to comply with all of Saudi’s demands in order to end the crisis. What does the Saudi want? First of all, in order for Saudi and its gang members to befriend Qatar again, Doha must cut its diplomatic ties to Tehran, essentially “unfriending” Iran. Like kids, this is friendship 101 at kindergarten that Qatar should understand.

 

Shutting down diplomatic posts in Iran might be easier said than done. Qatar shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran which supplies the small nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup its wealth. Saudi also wants Doha to kick out from Qatar any members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with U.S. sanctions.

Second demand requires Qatar to sever all ties, not partially, with Muslim Brotherhood. This is because Muslim Brotherhood is seen as more dangerous than al-Qaeda, the terror group bred and funded by Saudi. Although Muslim Brotherhood is not an armed group but is merely an ideological organization, the influence of the group has proven more powerful than guns and tanks.

 

Muslim Brotherhood was used by Qatar to spark the infamous 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Qatar’s preferred candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won the June 2012 presidential election, only to be overthrown after mass protests in July 2013, thanks to Saudi’s funding and support. The same group is feared would one day overthrow the monarchical autocracy Saudi Arabia.

The third demand has everything to do with Turkey, the NATO’s only Muslim member but possesses the second largest military force in the alliance, after the US Armed Forces, with an estimated strength of 639,551 military, civilian and paramilitary personnel in 2015. Besides Qatar, two other powerful Muslim countries which support Muslim Brotherhood are Turkey and Iran.

 

Therefore, the third demand from Saudi is for Qatar to end Turkey’s military presence in the tiny kingdom. After Saudi and 7 of its buddies cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, there was reported military movement which suggested a possible invasion by Saudi and its allies, prompting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan swiftly signed a law allowing its troops to be deployed to Qatar.

Within 3 days, Turkey Parliament passed a law, signed by Erdogan and gazetted, allowing up to a brigade-level task force of 5,000 Turkish troops to reinforce about 200 Turkish military personnel stationed temporarily at a former British base 15 miles from Doha. Obviously, this demand from Saudi is to isolate and cut Qatar from Turkey’s military protection.

 

The fourth demand is against Americans’ own First Amendment – freedom of press and freedom of speech. Saudi apparently is extremely afraid of another influential organization, aside from Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera, Qatar’s influential satellite channel, together with all its affiliates, presumably all of its English-language sister network, are required to be shut down.

If President Donald Trump applauds and agrees to Saudi’s demand of closing down Al-Jazeera, it would go against the U.S. democracy. Trump administration could be facing public criticism for supporting Saudi, a nation whose human rights is not only pathetic but also a country widely known to have had played a major role in the September 11 terror attacks on American soil.

 

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitutions prohibits prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, ensuring that there is no prohibition on the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble.

The fifth demand – Qatar must refuse to naturalize citizens from the four countries and expel those currently in Qatar. The list also demands that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted by those four countries for terrorism; stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.; and provide detailed information about opposition figures that Qatar has funded.

 

Other demands say that Qatar must stop funding a host of other news outlets including Arabi21 and Middle East Eye. The most humiliating demand is none other than Qatar paying an unspecified sum in compensation. Not only this is daylight robbery, it was designed to send a message to other Sunni Muslim countries that there’s a heavy price to pay for going against Godfather Saudi.

Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations have accused Qatar of inappropriately close ties to Iran, a Shiite-led country and Saudi Arabia’s regional foe. In reality, however, Saudi is increasingly threatened by Qatar’s growing financial “independence”, not to mention Qatar’s disobedience and rebellion. Gas-rich Qatar has also challenged Saudi’s authenticity of Wahhabism.

 

More importantly, the demands also requires that Qatar align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional club that has focused on countering the influence of Iran. This is the clearest proof that Saudi’s plan has been to threaten Qatar into submission and becoming an obedient entity of an organization of which Saudi is the leader.

But that was not the best part. According to the list of demands, if Qatar agrees to comply (with the ridiculous and outrages demands), Qatar will be audited once a month for the first year, and then once per quarter in the second year after it takes effect. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance. Heck, isn’t this colonization?

 

At best, Qatar will be a province of Saudi Arabia. At worst, Qatar will be a lapdog of Saudi Arabia. Either way, it would be extremely dumb for Qatar to even consider, let alone comply with the 13-point list of demands. Interestingly, only a day earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had warned the demands must be “reasonable and actionable.” It appears Saudi didn’t get the memo.

 

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Turkey Sends Troops To Qatar, To Defend Against A Saudi’s Invasion
• Arab VS Arab – The Hidden Reasons Why Saudi & Its Gang “Unfriend” Qatar
• Trump The Great – No Kowtow To King Salman, Rewarded With $350 Billion Deals
• A Saudi Spring – Here’s Why King Salman Returns Perks To Public Sector
• Sponsor & Supplier – Majority Of ISIS Militants Are Citizens Of Saudi
• WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton’s Email – Saudi And Qatar Are Funding Terrorist ISIS
• Exposing 9/11 Secrets – How Saudi Terrorism Began In 1979’s “The Siege Of Mecca”
• Saudi Has 100,000 Unused Air-Conditioned Tents, But Won’t Help Refugees

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June 23rd, 2017 by financetwitter

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