The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar appears to have entered a point of no return. For more than a year, a Saudi-led bloc has staged a boycott of Qatar, accusing the tiny but gas-rich Persian Gulf state of sponsoring terrorism and committing other menaces. However, Qatar has proven to be a tough nut to crack – showing incredible resistant to economic sanctions.
In June last year, the mighty Saudi Arabia, together with three of its best friends – Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt – all announced that they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar, as well as suspending air, land, and sea travel to and from the country. Yemen, Libya, Mauritius and Maldives also joined the boycott, effectively unfriended Qatar.
The allegations that Qatar was sponsoring and harbouring terrorists were laughable, considering Saudi was the actual biggest sponsor and supplier of terrorism in the world. The hidden reasons were more complicated than that. Qatar was actually trying to dethrone Saudi as the big brother in the Middle East. Hence, Qatar quietly channeled money to Iran to strengthen Saudi’s enemy.
Qatar has even claimed that it is a descendant of Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulwahab, the founder of Wahhabism. In fact, Doha deliberately inaugurated a mosque in 2011 after Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulwahab to legitimize its claims. Yes, even within Wahhabism, there’s a wide dispute over the legitimacy of another Arab’s royal family.
From the economic point of view, Saudi has increasingly gotten jealous of Qatar’s growing “financial independence”. Qatar used to be a Saudi vassal state, but no more. Qatar no longer says how high when Saudi asks it to jump. As the biggest exporter of liquid gas in the world, Qatar is out of Saudi’s control, unlike OPEC where Saudi dominates the oil cartel.
Adding insult to injuries, Saudi and its friends were depended on Qatar’s gas to produce electricity and power industry. Qatar also hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, a home to some 11,000 U.S. military personnel. While Saudi has tons of oil, Qatar has shiploads of gas. But make no mistake about it – both Saudi and Qatar were the largest source of funds to terror group ISIS.
Long story short, the U.S. Intelligence finally exposed that the culprit behind the Saudi-Qatar crisis was the U.A.E. (United Arab Emirates) who hacked Qatari state media sites on May 23, 2017. It then broadcasted fake news which quoted Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as criticising US “hostility” towards Iran – creating an excuse for Saudi and its allies to isolate Qatar.
The evil plan hatched by Saudi and its friends was to cut off Qatar from the rest of the world. When the alliance announced to unfriend Qatar, the tiny kingdom was plunged into crisis as its land border was sealed – creating a temporary food shortage crisis. Qatari commercial flights were banned and shipping lanes were closed.
Fortunately, Iran immediately sent food to help its friend. Turkey, another buddy of Qatar, also sent food, in addition to military assistance as intelligence believed there could be an invasion by Saudi and its allies. The fact that the Saudi-Qatar crisis exploded about 2 weeks after President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia suggests that everything was pre-planned.
Saudi subsequently listed 13 demands that Qatar has to meet, if the small kingdom wishes to become friends again with the alliance. Qatar had chosen to ignore the demands entirely. Among the demands included cutting diplomatic ties to Tehran entirely, severing all ties with Muslim Brotherhood, ending Turkey’s military presence in Qatar and shutting down the influential satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
But the most humiliating demand was this – 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. Amusingly, after the exposure that U.A.E. was behind the hacking, the initial 13-point list of insane demands were reduced to just 6-point.
In September, 2017, Bloomberg revealed that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies were indeed planning to launch a military invasion on Qatar before President Trump intervened and persuaded them otherwise. Not only Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-majority allies wanted to change the Qatari regime, also another Sunni-majority nation, they were also eyeing Qatar’s wealth.
Contrary to public’s belief and perception about Saudi’s wealth, Qatar is the richest Arab country with a net GDP per capita of US$98,900, follows by Kuwait, U.A.E, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (GDP: US$24,900). An invasion of Qatar would solve all the problems faced by Saudi Arabia in the region – stubborn low crude oil prices.
After various plans to change the Qatari regime failed spectacularly, Saudi Arabia is now looking at a more dramatic way to deal with Qatar. As crazy as it may sound, Saudi Arabia – presently run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – plans to cut a canal along its 38-mile border with Qatar – and transform the tiny emirate from a peninsula into an island.
According to a report published Tuesday in the Makkah newspaper, five international companies have been invited to bid for the project. Saudi authorities will then announce the winner of the contract for the canal – the “Salwa Channel” – within 90 days. The ambitious (and vengeful) plan is for the canal’s construction to be finished within one year.
Essentially, the canal was expected to be 650 feet wide and about 130 feet deep to allow ships to pass. Estimated to cost a whopping 2.8 billion Saudi riyals (US$747 million; £562 million; RM3 billion), the canal would be built on Saudi soil hence the entire project would be under Saudi sovereignty. However, the Saudi government has neither confirmed nor denied the insane project.
It could be a psychological warfare. But if the Crown Prince Mohammed was so crazy as to proceed with digging a canal to isolate Qatar, it would be the dumbest move. Qatar, as an island, would be easier to defend and more difficult for Saudi and its minions to invade. Also, the U.S. may not like the idea considering the Americans have their military base in Qatar.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Family Terrorism – Indonesia Has Given Terrorism A New Meaning, And The West May Not Be Ready For It
- How Trump Almost Started (And Stopped) A Saudi’s Invasion On Qatar, And Perhaps World War 3
- Exposed!! – UAE Behind Hacking Of Qatar, Mastermind Saudi Now Reduces Demands
- Arab VS Arab – Here’s Saudi Demands To Qatar, But It’s So Freaking Crazy
- Turkey Sends Troops To Qatar, To Defend Against A Saudi’s Invasion
- Arab VS Arab – The Hidden Reasons Why Saudi & Its Gang “Unfriend” Qatar
- WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton’s Email – Saudi And Qatar Are Funding Terrorist ISIS
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June 22nd, 2018 by financetwitter
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