(Newswire.net — June 7, 2017) — Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Yemen have suddenly decided to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.
Only 10 days following US President Donald Trump’s visited to Saudi Arabia, this wealthy Gulf country teamed up with Bahrain to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar. Within the next 24 hours, Yemen, Egypt and the UAE also turned their backs on Doha.
Such a decision should not come as a major surprise considering a series of events that started weeks ago, in the wake of negative comments about Saudi Arabia published by Qatar News Agency, a state-run Qatari news agency.
Allegedly, the comments, which have aggravated Riyadh, came directly from Qatar’s ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Other neighboring countries reacted by banning Qatar media outlets, including Al Jazeera’s office in Doha.
In a twist worthy of 007 movies, Qatar said it was a conspiracy, explaining that the news agency’s site had been hacked and that ‘someone else’ had posted negative comments about Saudi Arabia, the most powerful country in the Gulf.
The truth is that animosity between Riyadh and Doha has run for years as Qatar has aligned its policy with Iran, a natural enemy of Saudi Arabia. Also, Qatar has aggravated its neighboring countries by openly supporting Muslims Brotherhood, an organization that Egypt has declared as terrorist and that has been banned by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
A series of bad decisions by Doha go back to March 2014, when Qatar supported former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. It provoked outrage in the UAE, while Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha, but have reinstated them shortly after.
This time, however, Qatar is facing land and sea blockade and also the expulsion of its nationals from the neighboring countries.
Qatar has adamantly denied the accusations of its support to terrorism and close ties with Teheran, while remaining the major contributor to Hamas.
Other Gulf countries under heavy Saudi influence have also severed ties with Doha. Yemen has accused Qatar of supporting its enemies in the ongoing civil war. Also, the Maldives and Libya’s eastern-based government have cut ties with Qatar, while Libya’s internationally-recognized government has not.
Kuwait and Oman have also refused to sever ties with Qatar, for the time being.