Arab countries sever diplomatic relations with Qatar for ties to terrorism, Iran, meddling - UPDATES

RT
Mon, 05 Jun 2017 02:39 UTC

© Gulf Daily News

Doha, Qatar

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen have severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the country of backing terrorist groups. Qatar has called the move a "campaign of incitement" which is "based on lies."

Bahrain announced early Monday that it is severing diplomatic relations with neighboring Qatar and cutting air and sea connections with Doha, accusing it of meddling in its internal affairs. Bahrain's state news agency said in a brief statement that Qatari citizens have 14 days to leave the country.

It accused Doha of supporting terrorism and meddling in Manama's internal affairs.

Citing "protection of national security," Riyadh then announced it was also severing ties with Doha and closing off all land, sea and air contacts, the Saudi state agency said in a statement, cited by Reuters. The Saudi state news agency SPA alleged that Qatar "embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly."

The Saudi-led coalition has announced that Qatar's participation in its joint military operation in Yemen has been canceled. The coalition's statement accused Doha of supporting the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorist groups.

Comment: The decision to cut ties with Doha comes just weeks after comments published by the website of Qatar's state-run QNA news agency - allegedly from Qatar's ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani - featured negative remarks about Saudi Arabia.

Egypt was next to join the diplomatic war, with Cairo announcing it is cutting relations with Doha, according to Sputnik news agency. Egypt has closed all its seaports and airspace to Qatari vessels and planes, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt has decided to sever diplomatic relations with Qatar because of the continued hostility of the Qatari authorities towards Egypt," the Cairo statement read, also accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has followed suit, citing "support, funding and embrace of terrorist, extremist and sectarian organizations" as the reason for cutting ties with Qatar. The UAE's state news agency said in a statement that Qatar is "undermining regional stability," Reuters reports. The Emirates has similarly given Qatar's diplomats just 48 hours to leave its territory.

Yemen also followed suit, accusing Qatar of working alongside its enemies in the country's ongoing civil war, Al Arabiya and Reuters reported, citing state news agency Saba. The government said it cut ties with Qatar partly over its support of extremist groups in the war-torn country, which were "in contradiction with the goals announced by the countries supporting the legitimate government," AP reports. "Qatar's practices of dealing with the (Houthi) coup militias and supporting extremist groups became clear," the government said in a statement cited by Reuters. It added that it supports the decision by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen to remove Qatar from its ranks.

Comment: The eastern-based government of Libya was next, with Foreign Minister Mohammed Dairi announcing it was also cutting ties. The Maldives later followed suit, according to Al Arabiya.

Several airlines based in the UAE have said they will stop flying between Dubai and Doha from Tuesday, including Emirates, Etihad, FlyDubai, and Air Arabia. Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has also suspended all flights to Qatar.

Alarmed viewers of the Qatari TV network Al Jazeera wondered why it was not covering the diplomatic crisis, instead tweeting pieces such as a video about hijab cosplay in Malaysia. Al Jazeera finally broke the news at around 03:35 GMT, citing a "dispute over a Qatar news agency hack" as grounds for the crisis.

There was no immediate response to the accusations available from Doha, Al Jazeera said.

The hacking and "fake news" scandal broke out on May 23, when Qatar News Agency's website and social media accounts were apparently hacked, spreading what Doha calls false statements citing Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Those included him allegedly slamming the recent tensions with Iran, calling Hamas and Hezbollah "resistance movements," as well as doubting whether US President Donald Trump will stay in power for long.

The agency's compromised Twitter account also cited the Qatari foreign minister as saying the kingdom was severing relations with some of its neighbors.

While Doha vehemently denied the validity of those claims, UAE-based broadcasters Al Arabiya and Sky News Arabia picked up the stories, giving them extensive coverage and infuriating Qatari officials.

But the hacking scandal rapidly escalated, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain banning all Qatari-funded news agencies, including Al Jazeera, for what MENA agency called "having content that supports terrorism and extremism, as well [as] publishing lies."

In the latest cyberwar development before the all-out diplomatic crisis, the Bahraini foreign minister's Twitter account was allegedly seized on Saturday by hackers, who tweeting hostile and insulting clips about Iran. It took more than six hours for Bahrain to regain control of the account, judging by the reports on the Foreign Ministry's Twitter page.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE top the 22-state Arab League in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), with Qatar currently ranking 4th.

Qatar also hosts the US military's Central Command and some 10,000 US troops, with American forces using its Al-Udeid airbase. AP said there was no immediate response from the Pentagon on the situation.

US President Donald Trump met with the Qatari emir during his recent visit to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, describing the royal delegation as "friends" and marking that "our relationship is extremely good."

Comment: President Trump singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant groups.

Comment: 'Pots calling the kettle black.' When the Arab coalition members turn on each other, the game is nearly won. Is there a Qatar-Iran relationship, and who would be disturbed by this? Whose hand is behind this turn of events, amping the situation? Cui bono. According to RT:

Qatar has long faced criticism over its alleged support of Islamists, including the Sunni Islamist political group the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Doha previously faced a backlash from Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia for supporting former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar over the situation in March 2014.

Those ambassadors returned to Qatar eight months later, after it forced some Brotherhood members to leave the country and quieted others.

However, the 2014 escalation was far less severe than the current rift, as it did not see a land and sea blockade, or the expulsion of Qatari citizens from its neighbors' territories.

Naturally, Qatar has responded by saying the measures are "unjustified" and "based on assertions without foundation". Qatari diplomats have been given 48 hours to leave the nations in question. Turkey says it is saddened by the move, calling for dialogue to continue. Russia and the U.S. have adopted a stance of neutrality. Tillerson: "I do not expect that this will have any significant impact, if any impact at all, on the unified fight against terrorism in the region or globally ... "We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences". Lavrov: "We were never happy over the difficulties that arose in relations of other countries. We are interested in maintaining friendly relations with everyone, especially in the region where concentration of all efforts of fighting a joint threat, the threat of international terrorism, is a priority".

Thirrey Meyssan writes: "In actual fact, this episode is only the tip of the iceberg: Qatar together with the United Kingdom is participating in an attempt to redistribute the cards in the Middle East, a move which could devastate all current alliances."

Oil prices saw a minor see-saw in response, and Qataris are stocking up on food as their only border is now closed and food prices are expected to soar due to increased transport costs.

Again, Iran responds sensibly:

"What is happening is the preliminary result of the sword dance," Deputy Chief of Staff of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Hamid Aboutalebi tweeted, referring to a greeting ceremony in Saudi Arabia, in which US President Donald Trump took part in a traditional sword dance.

The ongoing crisis indicates that the era of foreign superpower 'Big Brothers' shaping regional coalitions is over, as "political domination, security clannishness, occupation, and invasion is not going to bring about anything other than insecurity," Aboutalebi claimed.

"The era of sanctions is over too, and cutting diplomatic ties, closing borders, laying sieges on countries, and ejecting countries out of the selfsame coalition, etc. is not the way out of the crisis," PressTV quoted the official as saying.

Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi also pinned the blame for the widening rift on Trump's visit.

"The first impression of the US President Donald Trump's visit to the region is the recent tension in the countries' relations," IRNA news agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying. Boroujerdi, along with other top officials, urged Arab nations to solve the dispute through dialogue and diplomacy themselves without the involvement of any outside powers.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has always believed, however, that regional issues should be settled by regional countries themselves," Mehr news agency quoted the official as saying.

"To resolve regional disputes and the current dispute, they should adopt peaceful methods, transparent dialogue and diplomacy," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi stressed, according to Reuters. "No country in the region will benefit from the heightened tension."

Update: Putin and Erdogan spoke with each other today about the situation with Qatar, calling on all involved parties to engage in dialogue for compromise in the name of peace and stability. For its part, Qatar seems to realize it doesn't have many options, and has opted to refrain from taking any measures that will "escalate tensions". Their foreign minister told Al Jazeera: "Qatar from its part will not undertake actions aimed at the escalation of the situation as it believes that such issues should be resolved by the brother states at the negotiating table." (Sudan too is calling for involved parties to overcome their disagreements.) In addition to calling Putin, Erdogan also called leaders of "several Muslim and Western countries" in a bid to resolve the issue.

The UAE is offering the terms of surrender: Qatar must develop a "roadmap" and guarantees in order to reestablish "trust". Clear as glass!

Iran has offered to step up and export food to cover at least some of the 50% of Qatar's market previously provided by Saudi Arabia.

Update (June 6): Qatar has turned to Kuwait for help mediating the current crisis. Kuwaiti emir al-Sabah urged restraint. He then held talks with the Saudi king. Jordan for their part have downgraded their own ties to Qatar and closed Al Jazeera's Amman offices. Damascus has yet to define their own position.

Egyptian lawmaker Saad Gammal told Sputnik that in order to regain trust, Qatar must "satisfy all the demands of the Arab states, the main one [being] to disclose all the wanted terrorists who are sheltered on its territory."