Qatar’s Suspicious Role in the Arab Revolutions
Qatar is a small country on the edge of the Persian Gulf, with a population of 1.7 million who are mainly immigrants. Since 1995 when Shiekh Hamed bin Khalifa II overthrew his father in a coup and came to power himself Qatar has witnessed outstanding progress in social, political and economic fields. Based on current estimates this country has been able to use its oil revenue to turn into the number one ranking country in GDP.
In terms of media the Aljazeera network has been able to gain first place in attracting Arab audiences. However this country did not achieve much in terms of its politics-- it still lacks a free parliament, and all state decisions are made by the Amir himself. Qatar plays a dual role in Palestine’s case. Even though Qatar supports the Palestinian movement through Aljazeera and invites its leaders to visit Qatar, at the same time it has close relations with Israeli officials and has allowed the establishment of Israeli’s economic office in Qatar. Israeli officials have participated in international conferences in Doha on many occasions. Hamed Bin Jasem, the Prime Minister of Qatar, also visited Israeli officials and discussed the Foreign Ministers meeting in Beirut and Doha-Tel Aviv relations.
Despite its close relations with Israeli officials, Qatar has been able to establish close ties with Palestinian groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well. Its recent effort in this regard was holding the Arab meeting in Doha in order to attract international support for the recognition of Palestine. Khaled Mashal, the political leader of Hamas, recently met with the Qatari Amir and discussed Palestinian developments.
The presence of American forces in the Al-Adid base in Qatar is an evident sign of the depth of relations between these two countries. The US is Qatar’s number one business partner, and the amount of business transactions between these countries has reached its pinnacle in the past few years. Qatar’s relations with the EU, especially with Britain and France, appears to be desirable as well.
The accumulation of material facilities, wealth coming from the export of oil and gas, the Aljazeera network and its extensive foreign relations have provided this country with plenty of ambition and aspiration.
Qatar’s role in the Arab World developments:
Middle East Online reported that in February 2006 the “Future Forum” conference was held in Doha, which hosted many political and economic figures from the US and Qatar. During the first session of the forum Dr. Abdulaziz, a Saudi nationalist economist furiously left the conference hall to return to Riyadh on the first flight. He claimed that his anger was because he believed that this forum was only held to plan the disruption of the Arab World by US security forces.
The writer of the report, who also participated in the forum writes: I also felt that a mutual plan was prepared by the US and Qatar which mainly focused on democratic reform in the Arab World and strengthening civil institutes and NGOs. Words like democracy, change, education of the youth, and support for opposition groups were repeated on many occasions. Bill Clinton, the former US President, and his daughter moved between different panels and talked to participants”.
Condoleezza Rice participated in another meeting of this conference, which proved that the US and Qatar were mutually working on bringing about change in the Arab World. Qatar was supposed to use its influence among Islamists to create a bridge between the liberal youth in the Arab World and the US. Qatar started this mission by establishing “the Change Academy”, through figures close to the Muslim Brotherhood like Shiekh Yousef Gharzavi, an Egyptian scientist in Qatar, and started educating the youth through the internet. The Muslim Brotherhood used the Qatar Islamic Bank for its transactions and established camps to educate Arab youth. They also used Aljazeera, the Islam Online Site, Aljazeera Talk, and Aldalil channel for their purposes.
The practical conduct of Qatar in some troubled Arab countries like Libya, Yemen and Syria are evident. The Palestinian Almenar weekly wrote: Qatar sent its dollars to Syria to topple the regime and will do all it can to achieve this goal. According to this report, European diplomatic sources have revealed the extensive advisement of Qatar in the Syrian case in the UN Security Council. Prior to this Allen Jupe, the French Foreign Minister, had emphasized that Qatar is pressuring Paris to take Syria’s case to the Security Council as soon as possible and it proposed a NATO strike against this country. Qatar had even accepted all possible expenses for this invasion.
Since the beginning of these Arab movements in Tunisia, the Aljazeera TV channel has been broadcasting the position of the opposition 24 hours a day. The role Qatar plays in popular uprisings in Yemen and Libya are also evident. Qatar has been present in Libya since the beginning of uprisings and communicated with the opposition in the free Benghazi region, and signed an agreement with them for the marketing of Libya’s crude oil in the interest of revolutionaries. Qatar was also among the first countries that officially recognized the transition political establishment in Libya. It also gave a number of its planes to NATO in order to fly enforce the no-fly zone to implement UNSC Resolution 1973. In the Yemeni uprising Qatar gave its support to the opposition and provided them with all the facilities they desired through the Aljazeera channel; it also plays a major role in spreading the popular uprising by depicting Abdullah Sale’s regime as a corrupt and illegal one.
In the case of Bahrain, despite its double standard which results from its membership in the PGCC, and after the resignation of some Aljazeera staff who thought the events in Bahrain were not covered properly on their network, Qatar finally broadcast a report about human rights violations in this country and the torture of the opposition by the Bahraini police and security forces. This report almost cost it its relations with Bahrain.
Even though Middle East Online claims that the roots of the Arab uprisings are based in the cooperation between Qatar and the US, popular demands, the corruption of regimes, dependence on the US and the West, poverty, and general dissatisfaction over the cooperation of some Arab regimes with Israel have created public anger and protest. The US has been following its plan for the creation of the Greater Middle East since the Bush administration-- through causing some reform in the Arab World-- but it certainly did not demand the collapse of Mubarak who was the main pillar of Israel’s security in the region.