When Gulf Arab powers announced on June 5 that they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar over its ties to terrorists, the message was clear: get in line with regional policies, or pay the price. Nearly a week later, Qatar appears in no hurry to comply. And it is the incoherence of US President Donald…
The diplomatic spate, engulfing the Gulf States, have left wide open cracks in the otherwise all-Sunni house, led by Saudi Arabia. It appears that the Islamic Military Alliance (IMA) has set Qatar for itself as the first target, and that it will not stop short of bringing a regime change in Qatar in order for…
“It’s difficult to see how things won’t get any worse; it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.” That was the stark warning given to me by a senior official from the Middle East who was sent by his country’s leader to try and mediate between Qatar and Saudi Arabia last…
Experts all across the world are trying to figure out what’s really fueling the Qatari-Saudi Cold War, but the answer is simple – the US. As it’s always prone to do, Washington is masterfully playing a game of divide and conquer in the Mideast, doing the same thing to its Gulf allies as it did…
The UAE’s threat to imprison Qatari supporters for up to 15 years is a grand self-inflicted wound to its international soft power as a “modern” Arab state and wouldn’t have been enacted unless Abu Dhabi was preparing for a prolonged crisis which “justifies” such a totalitarian move. The country has spent years building up its…
US President Donald Trump could not possibly have predicted the game-changing after-effects of his triumphal sword dance in Riyadh. Or could he? The fact is the House of Saud went amok, in a flash, going after Qatar and bombing from the inside that glorious Arab NATO project – call it NATOGCC — sworn with pomp over a glowing orb. An excited Trump tweeted…
