Fallout from UN veto exposes feud between Moscow and Doha

NEW YORK // The fallout from Russia's United Nations Security Council veto on Syria last week has accentuated a long-running dispute between Moscow and Doha over Qatar's support for Islamist groups.

Worried about external influences on its domestic Islamists, Russia has accused Qatar of backing extremists in Chechnyna and Libya and now hints Doha is aiding what Moscow and Damascus brand as terrorists in Syria.

As Arab League president, Qatar has pushed the league's plan for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to step aside, threatening Russia's most important ally in the Arab world.

Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, suggested last month that Arab nations send peacekeeping troops to Syria, where the UN says more than 7,000 civilians and government troops have been killed in almost a year of increasingly brutal fighting.

Ali Al Ahmed, a scholar with the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, said Qatar has co-opted Islamist groups in Syria to help bring down Mr Al Assad.

The ultimate aim, he said, is to weaken Iran's influence in the region by removing its long-time ally in Damascus.

And Qatar's strategy challenges Russia on two fronts: threatening its extensive interests in Syria - where it has critical access to a warm water port for its warships - as well as supporting Islamist groups at a time when Russia is dealing with its own extremists.

Russia is battling strong Islamist rebellions in areas such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus.

Moscow-Doha relations have been rocky since the 2004 assassination of the former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha, after Russia accused Doha of supporting terrorism in the breakaway republic.

Moscow was furious after Qatar's arrest and conviction of two Russian agents for the murder.

Relations improved with then-President Vladimir Putin's 2007 visit to Doha.

But last November, days after the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, criticised Qatar's involvement in Libya, the Russian ambassador complained he was assaulted by Qatari customs agents at Doha airport trying to seize his diplomatic pouch.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, has said extremists in Syria have outside support. He has not named any countries, but analysts say he had Qatar in mind.

The Syrian government, for its part, has openly accused Qatar of arming extremists.

A Western diplomat in New York said yesterday that Russia was offered an amendment to the Security Council resolution on Syria that would have called on the opposition there to reject extremism.

But Moscow dismissed the offer and, along with China, vetoed the resolution, saying it could open the door to foreign military intervention.

That vote has now led to a call for a boycott of Russian and Chinese goods in Qatar. But Russia's exports to Qatar are tiny - barely US$25 million (Dh91.8m) in 2008, mainly items such as infrastructure for gas production, plastics, construction equipment and halal reindeer meat.

Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi, a Qatari-based Muslim scholar, issued a fatwa on Monday calling for the boycott.

He branded Moscow and Beijing "enemies of the Arab people", according to Israel Radio, quoting Mr Al Qaradawi's remarks on his weekly Al Jazeera television show, which is seen by 80 million people.

"The [Qataris] are very angry at the veto," said Mr Al Ahmed. Mr Al Qaradawi, he said, "is the most famous religious leader" in the region and is a supporter of the Syrian opposition.

"The Chinese are content with market forces in the region but for the Russians it is strategic and political," said George Lopez, a professor at Notre Dame University in the United States.

The fallout from the veto has instead been mostly political.

A report circulated on the internet about a confrontation in New York last week between the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, and Mr Churkin.

The Algerian news agency ISP reported that Mr Al Thani told Mr Churkin before the Security Council vote: "I warn you against any veto on the crisis in Syria. Russia has to accept the UN decision, otherwise they will lose all the Arab countries."

Mr Churkin reportedly replied: "If you speak to me again that way, there will be no such thing as Qatar from today."

The Russian envoy hastily arranged a media conference at the UN last week to deny the "incredible" story.

"Someone is trying very hard to drive a wedge between Russia and the Arab world," he said.

If the Russians lose Syria, the situation could turn rapidly as Moscow may have to look elsewhere in the Arab world for an ally, says Mr Lopez.

He pointed out that if a bill in the US Congress to cut military aid to Egypt passes in retaliation for the recent arrests of 19 Americans in Cairo, then Moscow might find an opening for a new ally in the region.

"It is increasingly plausible that the Egyptian military would go for it" and allow Russia a naval base on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, he said.

With Syria so volatile, things could quickly evolve in unexpected directions, he said.