Qatar’s Isolation: A Geopolitical Trick? | Global Research
The
sudden shift in Qatar’s standings in the Middle East has left much of
the world perplexed, suspicious, and skeptical. Others are hopeful that
it indicates a fraying in an axis that has been sowing violence and
destabilization across much of North Africa and the Middle East for
years.
The Irish Times reported in its article, “Saudi Arabia threatens to blockade Qatar over terrorism,” that:
Saudi
Arabia has threatened to blockade neighbouring Qatar by air, land and
sea unless Doha cuts ties with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, closes global
channel al-Jazeera, and expels local branches of the US Brookings
Institution and Rand Corporation think tanks.
The
threat was issued by Riyadh before it withdrew its ambassador to Doha
and branded as “terrorist organisations” the brotherhood, Lebanon’s
Hizbullah and al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Jabhat
al-Nusra.
Although the kingdom has long been
the font of Sunni ultra-orthodox Salafism and jihadism, it now seeks to
contain radical movements and media and other organisations giving them
publicity.
The Irish Times would then go on to point out the bizarre contradiction of the Saudis’ move, reminding readers that:
While the law and decree are meant
to curb jihadi operations on Saudi soil as well as counter non-jihadi
dissidence, these legal instruments appear to contradict government
policy on foreign jihad.
While
400 Saudis have returned home from Syrian battlefields, another
1,000-2,000 are believed to be fighting with jihadi groups funded by the
government as well as wealthy Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris.
