Sources close to the Qatari government told Reuters on Thursday that Doha would not bow to demands from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to change its foreign policy. This will be construed as an act of defiance that could lead to greater escalation, argued Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the website Rai Al Youm.
The three nations recalled their ambassadors from Doha on Wednesday, saying Qatar was interfering in the internal affairs of GCC member states in violation of a GCC security pact.
This statement means that Qatar will continue to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Islamist groups in Syria, and will not “muzzle” the Qatari-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera, which is hostile to the Egyptian authorities that removed former president Mohammed Morsi, the writer noted.
Qatari defiance reached its apex when the source said that the country would not stop hosting members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Yousuf Al Qaradawi, a prominent Egyptian cleric who has criticised authorities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in his Friday sermons at Omar bin Al Khattab mosque in Doha.
Should Al Qaradawi bring up the UAE and Saudi Arabia in his sermons again, it will be tantamount to a serious escalation from Qatar. It is a known fact that any move made by the cleric is approved or ordered by the Qatari authorities. Broadcasting his controversial Friday sermons live on the state television channel is further evidence, the writer said.
Doha’s indirect rejection of toeing the line of the GCC states regarding the situation in Egypt and its backing of the Muslim Brotherhood might cause further tension, decrease the odds of a mediated settlement and prompt the three displeased neighbours to take further action against it, according to the writer.
People close to the former Qatari emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, know full well that he has high self-esteem and will not budge under pressure. Sheikh Hamad is the de facto ruler of the country and he personally handles from behind the curtain strategic issues, including those concerning the Gulf, while leaving the less important ones to his son Sheikh Tamim and his aids.
On the other hand, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is known for having an strong and proud personality, particularly when he is angry. He might take Qatar’s defiant stance as a personal provocation, especially since he was behind the reconciliation with Qatar five years ago following Al Jazeera’s allegations of Saudi officials taking commissions in the Al Yamama arms deal with the UK.
While some observers maintain that Oman could mediate a settlement, the continuing media and diplomatic escalation and Qatar’s attempts to boost ties with Iran, Turkey and Pakistan suggest that the current dispute is but the calm before a looming storm, the writer opined.
US and Russia ‘agree to see Syria in ruins’
The alleged disagreement over Syria between the United States and Russia is a fake one, Faisal Al Qassem wrote in the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi.
Had the dispute between the US and Russia and their respective allies been real, the US and Israel would not have let Hizbollah and Iran join the fight in Syria in such a flagrant way, the writer noted.
If the US were serious about being at loggerheads with the Russian axis and wanted a victory in the Syrian war, it would supply the Syrian opposition with sophisticated weaponry that is capable of changing the game.
The US has hitherto been unwilling to provide such weapons, which indicates that it is not a real ally of the Syrian opposition. Nor is it in conflict with Moscow and Tehran, which are both heavily supporting the Al Assad regime.
The writer continued: were the US really in a standoff with the Russians, it would have supplied Syrian rebels with anti-craft missiles, which were pivotal in the victory of the Afghan fighters against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Back then, the US would also pressure Arab allies to send huge funds to the Afghan Mujahideen.
To put it bluntly, Washington and Moscow, it seems, are rather in agreement. They have agreed to have Syria reduced to ruins by ensuring the fight continues without any warring party having a decisive win.
How technology has helped Arab Spring
The Arab Spring uprisings have brought about many significant changes. They have broken people’s fear and, instead, instilled panic in their oppressors, but most importantly they have created a new method of documentation, argued Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj in the pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi.
Now the truth can be captured through iPads and smartphones, in what can be termed the “people’s media”, the writer said.
It provides testimony to what is happening, as if the picture is the hidden eye that carries the truth, even despite photography bans by some regimes, he went on.
It comes at a time when everything has become instantly accessible due to the technological revolution.
The photographs and videos taken with mobile phones played a pivotal role in overthrowing the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, three years ago.
While state-owned channels have continued to ignore the transformations around them, “zapping” through alternative information channels, social media networks and the alternative images captured by mobile photographers has become a means of protest in itself, the writer noted.
* Digest compiled by Abdelhafid Ezzouitni
AEzzouitni@thenational.ae
