Qatar is Iran’s door to dismantle GCC, expand influence: experts

CAIRO – 31 August 2017: Former Iranian ambassador to Qatar, Abdullah Sehrabi, revealed that Qatar’s regime was planning to withdraw from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) but his advisors suggested taking his time.
Qatar and Iran seek to strike the GCC as a step to withdraw Qatar while it is considered as a chance for Iran to ensure Qatar’s loyalty and achieve its expansionist goals in the Arab region.
In this context, Member of Parliament (MP,) Yehia al-Kedwany, the Deputy of Defense and National Security Committee of the House of Representatives said that Iran will not stop interfering in Internal Affairs of the Gulf countries and has ambitions regarding the region, and so uses Qatar to achieve these goals.
Kedwany added that Qatar is procrastinating in responding to the Arab quartet demands and is still supporting and funding terrorism.
From his side, Islamist researcher, Hisham al-Nagar pointed out that Former Iranian ambassador to Qatar’s statement is to boast Iran’s achievements in this important file, and he considered this as detracting from the ability of the Arab countries to confront Iran.
Abdullah Suhrabi, occupied office as an ambassador from 2012 until 2016, and is considered one of the prominent godfathers of suspicious Irani-Qatari relations, according to Gulf reports. Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani followed his suit when he was still the crown prince of Qatar.

On June 5, several countries, including Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over backing and funding terrorist groups.

On June 23, the four Arab countries requested 13 demands from Qatar, which were presented by Kuwait, the mediator in the crisis. The demands included that Qatar would shut down Al-Jazeera TV network, cut diplomatic ties with Iran, stop financing and supporting terror groups; including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and end Turkey's military presence in Doha.