In a climate of outright confrontation, even the Gulf monarchies have been overtaken by a series of unprecedented events. The differences between Qatar on one side, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on the other, have escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis with outcomes difficult to foresee. Officially, everything started with statements made by Qatari…
In less than one week, what began as a simple disagreement in politics turned into a siege that could easily develop into a war. On June 5th of last week, Saudi Arabia and four of its regional allies decided to sever diplomatic, economic, and transportation ties with Qatar and its ruler Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al…
While President Trump seems to have sorted out his problems of interior authority – more or less – the conflict has now moved on to concern NATO. Washington is currently speaking against the manipulation of terrorism, while London has no intention of giving up such a useful tool for the extension of its influence. The…
This could be the beginning of a new alignment that will elevate the Russian position in the region while diminishing the influence of the United States. The new and seemingly prolonged row between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is having some curious and almost shocking knock-on effects. The most interesting is that Syrian media has been…
On June 8, a United States-led coalition attacked a motorcade of pro-Damascus allied forces near the town of al-Tanf in southern Syria, destroying a tank and several artillery systems. This was the third time coalition strikes have occurred in the area. On May 18, the US-led coalition struck pro-Assad fighters near al-Tanf in the area of an established…
Only Shakespeare’s plays could come close to describing such treachery – the comedies, that is. The Qatar crisis proves two things: the continued infantilisation of the Arab states, and the total collapse of the Sunni Muslim unity supposedly created by Donald Trump’s preposterous attendance at the Saudi summit two weeks ago. After promising to fight to the…
