Since June 5, repercussions of four great countries’ decision to cut relations with Qatar have continued to permeate the regional and international arenas. Each of the four countries issued a separate statement with enough justifications depending on the transgressions Qatar committed against their nation state and the damages suffered by each due to its continuous violations of their sovereignty and national security.
Since that date, different paths have been formulated for what was termed ‘Arab-Qatari Crisis.’ This term reduces a group of relations and regional and international alliances, which might take the Arab world as a new stage for limited-impact military operations, if not kept under control. However, they could also have far-reaching significations and may turn into extensive operations in light of prevailing irrationality and the Qatari system’s inability to take responsibility for its policies for a long time.
In this light, the four dimensions of the crisis became clear: the Gulf-Gulf dimension, the Arab dimension and the Arab dimension as it intersects with neighboring regional powers with ambitions and goals they want to achieve at the expense of the Arab world. This dimension consists of a triangle; each country in it has different priorities, policies and ideologies. However, their interests meet at the point of systematic impairment and destruction of the Arab world and the nation states’ own identity, which in essence is the national and Arab identity. This triangle consists of Turkey, Israel and Iran.
The last dimension is the dimension of the interaction between international powers and the USA, the superpower in this crisis. These interactions are still vague and the standpoints are still unclear, as they shift between day and night. This reflects the extremely complicated nature of interests between the world’s superpowers and the Arab and Gulf countries in particular and countries of the region in general.
Amidst all this, and as another sign of the Qatari system’s irrationality, since the Arab-Islamic-U.S. summit was held in Riyadh, the system quickly made it clear it does not acknowledge the dangers of being irresponsible about all the events that took place. It did not respond to mediations by Arab countries to bridge the gap caused by Qatari hostile policies aiming at threatening the identity of the nation state in the countries it targeted through the project of dividing the Arab region.
June 30 Revolution was the starting point of stopping this project in its tracks. It did not attempt to understand that gradual isolation had already happened, since the Kingdom of Jordan and the Kingdom of Morocco took different initiatives toward cutting ties, which signaled a growing Arab awareness of the dangers posed by the Qatari system. Instead of all this, the Qatari system again bowed to the policies that serve the goals of Iran and Turkey. The last few hours saw Arab mediations that were rejected by the Qatari system, in addition to security and military visits and coordination within the previously mentioned frameworks. Clearly, Qatar prefers Iran and Turkey more.
Perhaps this revealed itself in Turkey’s announcement that its Parliament passed a military deal with Qatar, which will allow it to deploy troops in Qatar. In addition, news websites have stated that forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have spread inside the Qatari Emir’s palace. These are yet to be confirmed because Qatar is an extreme police dictatorship. Qatar had usually used ‘democracy’ and ‘change’ as pretexts to cover-up its interventions in internal state matters, spread chaos and overthrow regimes, all through its extremely influential media outlet back then, Al Jazeera Channel.
Regardless of all this, the collective Arab statement came to unite the will of the four Arab countries. It asserted the following facts:
1. The statement represents a clear commitment by the four countries to the Egyptian counter-terrorism strategy. This is a strategy that was presented in the Riyadh Summit and was approved as a document by the UN, with its four dimensions. This reflects the four countries political leadership’s awareness of the institutional nature of their acts on the ground. They are acting according to a commitment by the U.S., partner in the Riyadh summit to play an active role and refrain from the ambiguity that the Qatari system has long used as a justification for refusing to obey the Arab will.
2. The four countries’ declaration of their last decision did not come as a reaction to a particular policy or offense to any of them or their leaders. The Qatari system did attempt to make the crisis personal through statements broadcasted in its multiple media outlets and via news websites, satellite channels and social media networks. The statement pointed out to the continuous Arab efforts exerted since the Riyadh Agreement in 2013 and its complementary agreement in March 2014 and to Qatar’s continuous violation of these agreements.
3. The statement includes clear indications of the security and intelligence cooperation success, which took place among the four countries, at gaining the support of other agencies and countries that responded to the logical information available. The four countries expressed their gratitude at this support as an initiative to gain more support and encourage more countries to adopt the same firm standpoints against this country. Documented information is available proving this country’s support for terrorism and terrorist organizations, according to the Egyptian strategic dimensions.
4. Initial information have revealed that Qatar provides a safe haven for symbols of extremist thought and that it accommodates them. The four countries’ statement announced the names of 59 individuals and 12 entities (representing only an initial list) and they are the most dangerous individuals and entities adopting extremist thought.
They attempt to spread these thoughts through companies that provide internet solutions and services, charities, national charitable organizations and movements that they are trying to paint as freedom, resistance and defense movements. All these are mere cover-ups to hide the actual goals of these organizations. It was promised that the list would be continuously updated in future statements.
It is important to point out that the list includes 26 Egyptian nationals who are considered extremely dangerous and belong to the terrorist outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Group and the Jihad Organization. Most of these nationals were in prison but were released or returned home upon the terrorist Brotherhood rule of Egypt.
Finally, it is important to note that, contrary to the rationality governing the four countries’ executive institutions and organizations; it is being met by the other’s escalations and hostile procedures. This will have consequences on each of the powers on the scene of the crisis, who want to keep their gains at the expense of the Qatari system or the Arab world, as these powers defend the Arab world and its national identity, a national identity that stems from preserving the identity of each great Arab country still in it.
It is certain that Turkey’s quick intervention seeks to rescue its key partner in the scheme of destroying the national identity of the great Arab countries. Destroying the Arab national identity shall be followed by reviving the dream of the Ottoman Caliphate, which matches the Iranian model, a model that has the same goals but from a Persian perspective.
It is peculiar how the Turkish and Iranian parties use Qatar, while Israel remains the only winner watching silently from afar after it added fuel to the fire by having lured Qatari rulers for years and years and subjecting them to its will, which does not differ much from the Turkish and Iranian will. The coming days will reveal the strength of the four Arab countries’ will, their ability to fairly present their case before international and regional organizations and encourage more influential world countries to support them.
The path, short or long, will reveal to everyone how Qatar used to be the portal through which regional and international ambitions were to attack the sick body of the Arab world.
Ahmed Nagi Qamha is the editor in chief of Al Siyassa Al Dawliya Magazine
This article was originally published in Arabic at Al Siyassa Al Dawliya Magazine
Ahmed Nagi Qamha
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