Will GCC survive Qatari Crisis?

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World, Opinions

Are Saudi and its allies implementing Israeli Agenda

By Latheef Farook,

Will the shaky Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, survive Saudi engineered Qatari Crisis? Or it will end up as writing on the shifting desert sand? These are questions discussed in the region and beyond.

Already the GCC remains divided-Saudi Arabia , Saudi stooge Bahrain and United Arab Emirates on one side while Qatar, Kuwait and Oman constitute another group.

In the most unexcpected and what many described as foolish move Saudi Arabia and its allies issued a threatening 13-point demands and an ultimatum to Qatar on 5 June 2017 .They followed this by trade and diplomatic embargo in a marked escalation of the Gulf’s worst diplomatic dispute in decades.

According to reports some of the main demands included the closing down of most popular Al-Jazeera television network, drastically scale back cooperation with Iran, remove Turkish troops from Qatar’s soil, end contact with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and submit to monthly external compliance checks. Qatar was given 10 days to comply with the demands or face unspecified consequences.

“This is clearly not just a question of demands, but an insult” said MARWAN BISHARA, AL JAZEERA’S SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST.

Economic and diplomatic blockade against Qatar pushed for the isolation of Iran and the suppression of dissenting media in the region. The restrictions have forced the gas-rich Qatar to import food by sea and air to meet the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million. As a result, Qatar has become reliant on Turkey and Iran for food imports and insists with its huge wealth it can survive the embargo for an indefinite period.

These were the demands of Israel for years. Thus, many political observers suspect that the entire crisis was engineered by Israel and implemented by its Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and Egyptian stooges. Over the years today Saudi regime has become stooge of US and Israel. The United Arab Emirates, under its Crown Prince and Defense Minister Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed, called MBZ, has become Israeli collaborator in implementing Israeli agenda against Islam and Muslims.

For example, according to reports, it was MBZ took the initiative to involve Saudi and Kuwait to topple Egypt’s first ever Islamic government of Mohamed Morsi, elected in a free and fair election after 61 years, spending eleven billion dollars and killing of more than 2500 innocent Muslims, some of them inside the mosque. Who benefitted in crushing Islamic government? Certainly Israel. He together with Saudi bombed and destroyed Yemen besides killing around 18,000 innocent Yemeni Muslims. He bombed Libya and caused death and destruction.

MBZ is also a best friend of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi under whose government Muslims in India are persecuted, raped, gang raped and lynched. MBZ gave a grant of $ two billion to Modi’s government. Thus, the Muslims cannot expect anything from MBZ who has become open collaborator with Israel.

Bahrain and the Egyptian dictators are simply Saudi-UAE stooges. This is the reason why many suspect that the Saudi triggered conspiracy against Qatar may have the blessings of Israel.

The demands reflect the call of Israel which was demanding the closure of Al Jazeera to ensure its atrocities on Palestinians and beyond in the region were not known to the world. Judging by Israel’s attitude towards Qatar some even suspect that Saudi’s 13 points demands perhaps may have been drafted in Israel and handed over to Saudi to trigger the crisis.

The irony is that Saudi and it so called allies have ignored the war crimes of Israel, god father of terrorism in the Middle East and committed around 63 small and large massacres of Palestinians besides grabbing Palestinian lands and its never-ending atrocities on Palestinians. Instead of condemning these crimes Saudi and its allies have become partners with Israel to harm Qatar- one of the few Arab countries in the region which has taken a liberal attitude on many burning issues.

For example, anything to do with Islam is detested by Jews since the days of Holy Prophet Muhammad(PBUH). In keeping with this policy, they consider Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as terrorist organization. However Muslim Brotherhood have not committed any crime as it was done by Israel. Echoing Israeli voice Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt too consider Muslim brotherhood as terrorist organization. This is absolute disgrace on the part of Saudi which claim to be a Muslim regime and other oppressive regimes in UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.

The tone of these demands and the underlining approach not only show total ignorance of international relations and a lack of understanding about what state sovereignty means, but it also goes to the heart of a lack of coherence and preparation by the four countries over putting a document like this together.

Almost two and half months later today Saudi and its allies begin to think their strategy on Qatar has miserably failed. The four Arab nations leading the boycott of Qatar are no longer insisting it comply with a list of 13 specific demands they tabled last month. Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt told reporters at the UN they now wanted it to accept six broad principles.

These include commitments to combat terrorism and extremism and to end acts of provocation and incitement. However, Qatar has refused to agree to any measures that threaten its sovereignty or violate international law, and denounced the “siege” imposed by its neighbors.

Long before the oil wealth Gulf region was unknown to the world and no one was interested. They were led by tribal leaders who often fought on various pretexts. Population was very small and in the harsh desert environment they were poverty stricken and illiterate without even basic modern facilities.

In the aftermath of the 1973 oil price rise and the subsequent boom, the oil rich Gulf Arab states came out of their century-old backwardness and made a quantum leap into the modern world. Using the massive oil wealth, they started their nation building programs with ambitious development projects providing the latest infrastructure and turning their desert sheikhdoms into modern miracles.

As a result, modern cities sprang up in the deserts turning overnight, the lifestyle of rulers and the people alike who began enjoying a type of luxury and comfort which they never dreamt of. People from all over flocked to the region to make their fortunes and the oil wealth even brought European and United States leaders to their feet.

The GCC was formed in May 1981 against the backdrop of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Iraq-Iran war. Its members share similar political systems and a common social and cultural outlook. They are autocratic and oppressive monarchies or sheikhdoms, with limited or non-existent political participation. Collectively, GCC countries possess almost half of the world’s oil reserves. Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member of the alliance.

Once again, the Qatari crisis has destabilized the highly volatile and heavily armed region. The question is what next especially in the context of war mongers in Washington, London, Paris, Moscow and Tel Aviv awaiting to destroy and plunder oil rich Gulf countries as they had been doing for the past three decades in the region.