Arab powers sever Qatar ties, citing support for militants

Saudi beef with Qatar may be about gas, not terrorism Published time: 6 Jun, 2017 10:11 Get short URL Saudi beef with Qatar may be about gas, not terrorism LNG tanker © Haryadi Be / Global Look Press 3.5K Saudi Arabia's dispute with Qatar is said to date back to 1995 and stems from the country's success in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. LNG has given Qatar greater independence from Riyadh and has aligned Doha with Saudi Arabia’s arch-enemy Iran. Read more © Fayez NureldineQataris rush to stock up on food ahead of price hike as only land border shut The LNG revolution made Qatar one of the world's richest nations with an annual per-capita income of $130,000. The country also became the largest exporter of LNG. Qatar’s offshore North Field, which provides all the country’s gas, is shared with Iran. Qatar also hosts US Central Command and bought a $2.7 billion stake in Russia’s oil major Rosneft. “Qatar used to be a kind of Saudi vassal state, but it used the autonomy that its gas wealth created to carve out an independent role for itself,” said Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, in Houston, Texas told Bloomberg. “The rest of the region has been looking for an opportunity to clip Qatar’s wings,” he added. On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and other countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the country of supporting terrorism. Read more © Faisal Al Nasser Arab states in the Persian Gulf suspend all flights to and from Qatar LNG wealth has allowed Qatar to form foreign policy, independent from the Saudis. Riyadh has accused Doha of backing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and armed groups opposed by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh in the Libyan and Syrian wars. Moreover, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have seen a surge in LNG demand to produce electricity. As Qatar has the lowest extraction costs, the Saudis have to rely on higher-cost LNG imports. “You can question why Qatar has been unwilling to supply its neighboring countries, making them gas poor, There probably was an expectation that Qatar would sell gas to them at a discount price,” Steven Wright, Ph.D. Associate Professor at Qatar University told Bloomberg. Qatar's Foreign minister said on Tuesday Doha was ready for mediation efforts to ease the Gulf rift. Kuwait's ruler Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah has announced he will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to mediate an end to the feud. Mon Jun 5, 2017 | 1:54 PM EDT 4h ago | 02:21 Arab powers sever Qatar ties Arab powers sever Qatar ties, citing support for... X By Noah Browning | DUBAI The Arab world's biggest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for Islamists and Iran, reopening a festering wound two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for Muslim states to fight terrorism. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in a coordinated move. Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives joined later. Transport links shut down, triggering supply shortages. Qatar, a small peninsular nation of 2.5 million people, denounced the action as predicated on lies about it supporting militants. It has often been accused of being a funding source for Islamists, as has Saudi Arabia. Iran, long at odds with Saudi Arabia and a behind-the-scenes target of the move, blamed Trump's visit last month to Riyadh and called for the sides to overcome their differences. "What is happening is the preliminary result of the sword dance," tweeted Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, referring to Trump's joining in a traditional dance with the Saudi king at the meeting. Closing all transport links with Qatar, the three Gulf states gave Qatari visitors and residents two weeks to leave, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt banned Qatari planes from landing and forbade them from crossing their air space. The UAE and Saudi Arabia stopped exports of white sugar to Qatar, a potential hit to consumers during the holy month of Ramadan, when demand is high. Some residents in Qatar began stockpiling food and supplies, an expatriate said. "People have stormed into the supermarket hoarding food, especially imported ones ... It's chaos - I've never seen anything like this before," said Eva Tobaji, an expatriate resident in Doha, told Reuters after returning from shopping. Supply difficulties quickly developed. Two Middle East trade sources spoke of thousands of trucks carrying food stuck at the Saudi border, unable make the sole overland frontier crossing into Qatar. About 80 percent of Qatar's food requirements are sourced via bigger Gulf Arab neighbors. Trade sources pointed to the likelihood of shortages growing in Qatar until the crisis eased. Along with Egypt, however, the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be vulnerable to retaliation, being highly dependent on Qatar for liquefied natural gas. The United States called for a resolution of the dispute soon, saying its partnerships with Gulf nations were vital. "All of our partnerships in the Gulf are incredibly important and we count on the parties to find a way to resolve their differences sooner rather than later," a State Department official said. The U.S. military said it had seen no impact to its Gulf-area operations, intended mainly as a bulwark against Iran, and added that it was grateful for Qatar's longstanding support of a U.S. presence and commitment to regional security. ADVERTISEMENT The diplomatic bust-up threatens the international prestige of Qatar, which has a large U.S. military base and is set to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. Soccer's governing body FIFA said on Monday it was in "regular contact" with Qatar's 2022 organizing committee but did not comment directly on the diplomatic situation. The hawkish tone Trump brought in his visit to over 50 Muslim leaders in Riyadh on Tehran and on terrorism is seen as having laid the groundwork for the diplomatic crisis. "You have a shift in the balance of power in the Gulf now because of the new presidency: Trump is strongly opposed to political Islam and Iran," said Jean-Marc Rickli, head of global risk and resilience at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. "He is totally aligned with Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, who also want no compromise with either Iran or the political Islam promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood." MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD Qatar's backing of Islamists dates to a decision by the current ruling emir's father to end a tradition of automatic deference to Saudi Arabia, the dominant Gulf Arab power, and forge the widest possible array of allies. Doha subsequently cultivated not only Islamists like America's foes Iran, Hamas and the Taliban in pursuit of leverage, but also Washington itself, hosting the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East. Qatar has for years presented itself as a mediator and power broker for the region's many disputes. But Egypt and the Gulf Arab states resent Qatar's support for Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, which they see as a political enemy. Muslim Brotherhood groups allied to Doha are now mostly on the backfoot in the region, especially after a 2013 military takeover in Egypt ousted the elected Islamist president. The ex-army chief and now president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with Cairo's allies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, blacklist the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood denies this, saying it supports only peaceful politics. Saudi Arabia accused Qatar on Monday of backing militant groups and broadcasting their ideology, an apparent reference to Qatar's influential state-owned satellite channel al Jazeera. Later in the day, the kingdom shut the Saudi bureau of al Jazeera. "(Qatar) embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda," Saudi state news agency SPA said. Al Jazeera says it is an independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the region. Related Coverage VIDEOCountries cut links with Qatar over 'terrorism' VIDEOSpat between Qatar, Gulf Nations won't affect counter-terrorism: U.S. FACT BOX Gulf Arab states, Egypt, sever ties with Qatar U.S. partnerships in Gulf 'incredibly important': U.S. official Global airlines call for open borders after Gulf rift Gulf rift threatens air travel disruption across region and beyond Riyadh also accused Qatar of supporting what it described as Iranian-backed militants in the restive, largely Shi'ite Muslim-populated eastern Saudi region of Qatif, as well as in Bahrain. Qatar was also expelled from the Saudi-led coalition fighting a war in Yemen. The state news agency in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, said Qatari policy "threatens Arab national security and sows the seeds of strife and division within Arab societies according to a deliberate plan aimed at the unity and interests of the Arab nation". Qatar denied it was interfering in the affairs of others. "The campaign of incitement is based on lies that had reached the level of complete fabrications," the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement. Turkey also called for dialogue to settle the dispute and a government spokesman said President Tayyip Erdogan was working for a diplomatic solution to the rift. FALLOUT A split between Doha and its closest allies could have repercussions around the Middle East, where Gulf states have used their financial and political power to influence events in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The economic fallout was already hitting home as Abu Dhabi's state-owned Ethihad Airways, Dubai's Emirates Airline and budget carriers Flydubai and Air Arabia said they would suspend all flights to and from Doha indefinitely from Tuesday morning. Qatar Airways said on its official website it had suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia. Many Gulf airports, including in Qatar, are major hubs for international connecting flights. Qatar's stock market index sank 7.3 percent with some of the market's top blue chips hardest hit and some Egyptian banks said they were suspending dealing with Qatari banks. The measures are more severe than during a previous eight-month rift in 2014, when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, again alleging Qatari support for militant groups. At that time, travel links were maintained and Qataris were not expelled. (Additional reporting by William Maclean, Parisa Hafezi, Omar Fahmy, Mohammed el-Sherif, Sylvia Westall, Tom Finn and Amina Ismail, Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Mark Heinrich) ================ • Reply • Share › Muhammed • 16 hours ago Accusing Qatar of funding Isis is also lies 1 • Reply • Share › Mohammed Alkali • a day ago However do these Arabs realize the fact that their actions against Qatar may push Qatar to become a darling to their arch enemy Iran? With the closure of Saudi Land border to Qatar Iran is already angling to provide the food needs of Qatar further inclining towards Iran. I think the GCC should set aside emotions and then deal with the matter in a more matured manner if not the alternative is fraught with bigger dangers • Reply • Share › − John Kepler Sr. Mohammed Alkali • 21 hours ago The leadership in Qatar has been warned numerous times over the last five years that it was making "poor choices", and that continuing those "poor choices" would have significant consequences. Qatar has persisted in making it's "poor choices"; welcome to the consequences!