Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt remove diplomatic relations with Qatar

RobertKK

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have broken all relations with Qatar, as these nations accuse Qatar of sponsoring terrorism and destabilising the region.
Saudi Arabia said it was closing land, air and sea access from Qatar to protect itself.
Egypt said they talked to Qatar but were unable to make them turn away from terrorism.
I am not going to argue with those nations in what they say about Qatar.

A strange set of events. Wonder if Qatar where the US have a military base, if it will be added to Trump's proposed travel ban?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40155829

LizT

There's an American military base in Qatar, I believe there's a few thousand soliders currently stationed there.
I'm in Qatar and the way it's being reported here is that comments falsely attributed to the Emir that were recently leaked after a hack prompted all this. But they control the media here so I would take everything said with a pinch of salt.

judeboy101

Probably the one place you wont get a terrorist attack I suppose

Nody

judeboy101 wrote: »

Probably the one place you wont get a terrorist attack I suppose

Don't count on it; between the Shia/Sunni/local factions and the "not extremist enough standards for "insert insane terror group standards" so we need to enforce them" along with simple local unrest there's plenty of scope for it.

What I saw listed from Saudi Arabia claimed that they support ISIS (eh?) and Muslim Brotherhood (can't see the links to Qatar to be honest). Honestly I'd put more money on that they are simply pissed off about Al Jazeera's unbiased (compared to the government run versions) of media reporting of the region as all the bloody countries down there have people happily shifting money to be very kind dubious and extremist organizations after all.

Hank Scorpio

Nody wrote: »

What I saw listed from Saudi Arabia claimed that they support ISIS (eh?) and Muslim Brotherhood (can't see the links to Qatar to be honest).

Old news. Trump will get no credit for this from the press and the real deal breaker is the US/CIA being in cahoots with the Saudi's but I suppose it has to start somewhere.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-email-isis-saudi-arabia-qatar-us-allies-funding-barack-obama-knew-all-a7362071.html

namloc1980

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Old news. Trump will get no credit for this from the press and the real deal breaker is the US/CIA being in cahoots with the Saudi's but I suppose it has to start somewhere.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-email-isis-saudi-arabia-qatar-us-allies-funding-barack-obama-knew-all-a7362071.html

Trump won't get credit for what? He just sold over $110bn of military equipment to the Saudis, who are providing significant funding and support to ISIS. The US has a base in Qatar and at the recent trip to Saudi, Trump met the Qatari Emir and was fullsome in his praise for him and how such good friends they are. Utter hypocrisy.

Hank Scorpio

namloc1980 wrote: »

Trump won't get credit for what? He just sold over $110bn of military equipment to the Saudis, who are providing significant funding and support to ISIS. The US has a bar in Qatar and at the recent trip to Saudi Trump met the Qatari Emir and was full-time in his praise for him and how such good friends they are. Utter hypocrisy.

I said the relationship with the Saudi's was a deal breaker, did you have a problem reading my post? Money rules all, and it's sickening that the US are allies with them, but imo no matter who's in charge that's never going to change.

namloc1980

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

I said the relationship with the Saudi's was a deal breaker, did you have a problem reading my post? Money rules all, and it's sickening that the US are allies with them, but imo no matter who's in charge that's never going to change.

I'm confused what Trump won't be getting credit for in the press?

conditioned games

I guess the gas pipeline from Qatar through Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and into Turkey that the US and Britain have been pushing for is out of the question now. No point in them continuing to support ISIS you would hope to cut off the muslim Shiite influence in the region.

Hank Scorpio

namloc1980 wrote: »

I'm confused what Trump won't be getting credit for in the press?

Yes, you're right. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. When I see Qatar I think of terrorism but overall it may cause increased tensions.

Sparko

I wonder does this affect their already farcical hosting of the World Cup.

RobertKK

Sparko wrote: »

I wonder does this affect their already farcical hosting of the World Cup.

Hopefully.
Supporting terrorism, slavery, and sponsoring things in the west to try and look like our friends.
They need to be isolated.
I don't often agree with the Saudis, but for whatever reason, hope more countries isolate Qatar.

Inquitus

From what I have read this screws over Qatar in a massive way, 40% of their food requirements are currently imported across the now closed land border. The loss of access to their neighbour's airspace will add hours to Qatar Airlines routes into and out of their Doha hub, increasing costs and decreasing passenger numbers. Not to mention the fact that the building materials for the World Cup stadiums also come via the now shut land borders.

ThisRegard

They seem to be heading towards food shortages too as apparently there's been massive stock piling going on since the announcement.

LizT

ThisRegard wrote: »

They seem to be heading towards food shortages too as apparently there's been massive stock piling going on since the announcement.

Only for meat. Supermarkets still full of food and they're restocking ATM. They will run out of chicken soon but red meat is imported from Aus/NZ/Pakistan. Iran has apparently offered to send food if needed but I don't think it will get that bad here. Goods will probably just increase in price to make up for increased transport costs.

Doltanian

The EU and US should be launching blockade on the entire middle east, The Saudi's are such hypocrites here as they are even worse that the Qataris. OPEC should be broken up and let the US and Russia pump what oil they can. Canada and Venezuela dwarf Saudi in oil terms. If Trumo had any sense he'd blockade the Middle East, force Iran and Israel to make friends and lift the sanctions on Shiite Iran. And cut off the Wahhabi sunni world and their despicable religion of hate and terror. They should be starved into submission.

Inquitus

Doltanian wrote: »

The EU and US should be launching blockade on the entire middle east, The Saudi's are such hypocrites here as they are even worse that the Qataris. OPEC should be broken up and let the US and Russia pump what oil they can. Canada and Venezuela dwarf Saudi in oil terms. If Trumo had any sense he'd blockade the Middle East, force Iran and Israel to make friends and lift the sanctions on Shiite Iran. And cut off the Wahhabi sunni world and their despicable religion of hate and terror. They should be starved into submission.

I would 100% agree, it's the Sunnis that are the problem not the Shiites, unsure why our politicians refuse to acknowledge this.

Brussels Sprout

I can't figure this one out at all. Probably because I always thought of those oil rich kingdoms in the Arabian peninsula as all singing from the same hymn sheet. Egypt I can understand as they've had beef in the past over Al Jazeera and the jailing of their journalists but the Saudis going against them is very interesting. Well if it goes no further than this then I guess the Qatari's can survive due to their wealth although at a huge level of inconvenience. The Al-Thani's would do well to hot foot it to Riyadh and sort this out diplomatically for their own good.

Cheerful Spring

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

I can't figure this one out at all. Probably because I always thought of those oil rich kingdoms in the Arabian peninsula as all singing from the same hymn sheet. Egypt I can understand as they've had beef in the past over Al Jazeera and the jailing of their journalists but the Saudis going against them is very interesting. Well if it goes no further than this then I guess the Qatari's can survive due to their wealth although at a huge level of inconvenience. The Al-Thani's would do well to hot foot it to Riyadh and sort this out diplomatically for their own good.

There could be a mideast- regional war eventually.. Iran and Saudi Arabia are not on good terms at all.

Hande hoche!

LizT wrote: »

Only for meat. Supermarkets still full of food and they're restocking ATM. They will run out of chicken soon but red meat is imported from Aus/NZ/Pakistan. Iran has apparently offered to send food if needed but I don't think it will get that bad here. Goods will probably just increase in price to make up for increased transport costs.

Richest country in the world and talk of food shortages. It's astonishing how quickly things can change.

The Al-Jazeera coverage is eye opening, to an extent.

Nody

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

I can't figure this one out at all. Probably because I always thought of those oil rich kingdoms in the Arabian peninsula as all singing from the same hymn sheet. Egypt I can understand as they've had beef in the past over Al Jazeera and the jailing of their journalists but the Saudis going against them is very interesting. Well if it goes no further than this then I guess the Qatari's can survive due to their wealth although at a huge level of inconvenience. The Al-Thani's would do well to hot foot it to Riyadh and sort this out diplomatically for their own good.

The Economist put up a good article here; the summary of it is basically they refused to kowtow to Saudi Arabia and are now getting punished.

There are broader and older grievances at play, rooted in geopolitics and the place of Islam in politics. For decades, Saudi and Emirati officials have blamed Qatar, which protrudes like a sore thumb from the western Gulf, for breaking ranks with the Saudi-dominated six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).

Qatar is one of three GCC states that still maintains cordial relations with Iran (Kuwait and Oman are the other two).

RobertKK

Inquitus wrote: »

I would 100% agree, it's the Sunnis that are the problem not the Shiites, unsure why our politicians refuse to acknowledge this.

Because politics are still dominated by who is the US/western allies and who is the Russian allies.

Sunni Muslim nations tend to be US/western allies.
Shiite Muslim nations tend to be Russian allies.

One can question the use of the word 'allies'.
We would all be better off if the west and Russia sorted out it's issues, because there is an underlying cold war still in effect.
I don't believe many ordinary western citizens believe the Sunni Muslim nations of the middle east are really our allies.

Impetus

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Richest country in the world and talk of food shortages. It's astonishing how quickly things can change.

The Al-Jazeera coverage is eye opening, to an extent.

Aside from the fact that it is blanked out in most Middle Eastern countries. They have in place the internet censoring facilities - vpn blocking etc that Teresa May longs to impose on Britain and probably the entire 'common travel area' Ireland should impose passport checking on all flights coming from GB, immediately.

And better still join Schengen to give us passport free travel to/from mainland Europe, and give the ie.government access to the full Schengen SIS II database.

Impetus

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Richest country in the world and talk of food shortages. It's astonishing how quickly things can change.

The Al-Jazeera coverage is eye opening, to an extent.

They have a large fleet of Airbus A380 and A350s. They can fly in all the food the need from Europe - even if it is left to Switzerland to do the supplying.

Impetus

Trump was in Saudi recently, and probably started off this war against Qatar during his visit. He walked away with a deal worth $750 million to update Saudi military on how to murder people.

Impetus

Perhaps Ireland should sell them food? If they send a few Airbus A350s (the A380 can't land on the short runways in Ireland) to Dublin and Shannon, the country could make a humanitarian gesture to Qatar. The country has plenty of $ to pay for same. Make a gesture to the greater Arabian area. While Egypt mightn't like it (superficially), so what. There are signs that Dubai is going to support Qatar over the coming days (against Anglo-Saxon bullying).

Qatar is the largest gas (LNG) seller in the world. The Maltese helped the Chinese back in the day, and China is investing a fortune in Malta today.

LizT

There's plenty of food here! I was in a few different supermarkets today and they were all nearly fully stocked. The only issue will be rising price of imports but I would be surprised if there were actual food shortages. The only thing out of stock at the minute is chicken but plenty of times I've gone to the supermarket normally and chicken has been completely out of stock here.

The supermarkets here would have had excess stock in anyway because of Ramadan.

Akrasia

Impetus wrote: »

Perhaps Ireland should sell them food? If they send a few Airbus A350s (the A380 can't land on the short runways in Ireland) to Dublin and Shannon, the country could make a humanitarian gesture to Qatar. The country has plenty of $ to pay for same. Make a gesture to the greater Arabian area. While Egypt mightn't like it (superficially), so what. There are signs that Dubai is going to support Qatar over the coming days (against Anglo-Saxon bullying).

Qatar is the largest gas (LNG) seller in the world. The Maltese helped the Chinese back in the day, and China is investing a fortune in Malta today.

A380s can and have landed at Shannon.

RobertKK

CNN alert on my phone:
"US investigators suspect Russian hackers planted fake news that contributed to a crisis among US' closest Gulf allies"

Seems a common theme for the US these days. The Russians...

Overheal

Guess who bought the news.... and has now threatened the stability of the region in a matter of a few tweets.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/872062159789985792

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/872084870620520448

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/872086906804240384

This puts the future of the US Military's 10,000~11,000 strong military presence in Qatar totally up in the air. Qatar allows the US to operate there pretty agreeably and reportedly the operations there are central to the air force's ability to operate in the Middle East. Being expelled from there will be terrible, for everyone, except perhaps Russia. Granted Qatar uses slave labor and ****, confiscating tourist passports etc. but this is a pretty swift and bold move that is most certainly not thought out in the slightest... especially if you get the reaction from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who sounded categorically gobsmacked and blindsided.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/sen-corker-shocked-silent-after-reading-trumps-tweets-calling-qatar-a-state-sponsor-of-terror/

While speaking to reporters earlier today, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was completely shocked over recent tweets sent by President Donald Trump, as his conversation with the press was the first time he was made aware Trump’s statements.

Corker, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was stunned into silence when members of the media told him about the tweets and then physically showed him.

Corker pointed out that he wanted to go back and see what the president said, but as can be seen in HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery’s video above, he was shown the tweets and could only silently shake his head.

It should be noted that during today’s White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer explained that any tweets sent out by Trump are “official statements by the president.”

https://twitter.com/DaveClark_AFP/status/872142846245171205/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fonline%2Fsen-corker-shocked-silent-after-reading-trumps-tweets-calling-qatar-a-state-sponsor-of-terror%2F

https://southfront.org/us-military-presence-in-qatar-al-udeid-airbase/

The largest US base in the Middle East accommodating approx. 10 000 troops is located at the “Al Udeid” Air Base in Qatar, close to the capital Doha. The U.S.-Qatar military relationship is extremely important and surprisingly “free-of-charge”. It is well known that Qatar provides the U.S. military with exceptional access to two of the major Qatari military installations – “Al Udaid” Air Base and Camp “As-Saliyeh” – perhaps, CENTCOM’s most important operating installation outside of Iraq. There were some struggles in building additional runways at “Al Udaid” Air Base during 2008-09 but it all seems to have been amicably resolved. Another issue that was present between the two sides was the ownership of the facility. For example, ““Al Udeid”” Air Base is a Qatari Air Force Base. However, while there were probably only 100 or so Qatari personnel stationed there, as of 2015 the facility hosted over 10 000 U.S. military personnel, but technically it is not a U.S.’ base

PopePalpatine

I'd love to see Qatar ask the US to cough up for their continued presence and put the "Art of the Deal" to the test.