Via Iran, Qatar stands against the Arab, Gulf coalition

CAIRO – 3 July 2017: The coalition parties, KSA, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, have given Qatar until Tuesday to respond to a list of demands, after the original deadline passed on Sunday night.

Iran has been able to convince Al-Doha to ignore and refuse to comply to 13 demands of the Arab and Gulf countries, while also increasing its military support and food supplies delivery to the tiny Arab country.

In the light of the Iranian support to Qatar, numerous telephone calls and consultations have been monitored over the past ten days.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has even stepped in to protect the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani inside his palace, reported Al-Arabia earlier in June 2017.

The Qatari-Iranian cooperation was clearly shown earlier in 2010, when Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Hamad bin Ali Al-Attiyah signed the defense cooperation agreement.

Also in 2015, Qatar signed a security and military agreement with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who were granted the right to train the Qatari army.

As mentioned on BBC website in early June 2017, the oil and gas rich state of Qatar has long practiced an ambitious foreign policy, among which were two key issues that angered its neighbors the most. Firstly is the Qatari support for main Islamic groups, such as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, while the other reason lies behind the Qatari relations with the Shiite based country, Iran.

Qatar’s relations with several Arab and Gulf States have been strained since May 24, when the Qatari state-run news agency reported Sheikh Tamim bin Hammad Al-Thani’s statements regarding Gulf foreign policy with Iran, as “unwise.”

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen decided to cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar, hurling allegations the state supports terrorism. Ports and airspace were cut off to Qatari vessels.

On June 6, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Ahmad al-Sabah started a tour that included Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in an attempt to mediate between the three countries.