[27], Qatar maintains relatively good relations with Iran. Qatar is actually the only other Sunni Islam dominated country, other than Saudi Arabia, to be adherents of the ultra conservative Wahhabi religious movement. This border crossing was closed in June 2017 and Qatar's trade with the blockading countries was suspended, thereby cutting off Qatar from its primary source of food imports. Picture: Kamran Jebreili/APSource:AP. Saudi Arabia is the closest U.S. ally in the region, and Qatar is home to al-Udeid Air Base and almost 10,000 U.S. troops. Saudi Arabia has the only land border with Qatar, and Qatar's population of more than 2.5 million people is fed by supply trucks that roll across the border. In the past Iran has tried to claim some parts of the Gulf states including at one stage, the entire country of Bahrain. Relations between the two countries have historically been turbulent due to disagreements over the rightful ownership of several territories. Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Syrian War involved the large-scale supply of weapons and ammunition to various rebel groups in Syria during the Syrian Civil War.. [65] US investigators believe the news agency was breached by Russian hackers as part of an ongoing fake news campaign designed to cause diplomatic rifts among the United States and its allies in the region. “It’s soft on Iran where the others are not, but it also has the largest American military base in the region,” Prof Piscatori said. On 5 June 2017, Saudi Arabia along with Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates severed all ties with Qatar. ", "3 Gulf Countries Pull Ambassadors From Qatar Over Its Support of Islamists", "gulfnews.com: "UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recall their ambassadors from Qatar" 5 Mar 2014", "Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain withdraw envoys from Qatar", "A GCC House Divided: Country Risk Implications of the Saudi-Qatari Rift", "Qatar Pursues an Independent Foreign Policy that Clashes with the Saudi's Strategic Interests", "Saudi Diplomatic Offensive on Qatar to Barely Impact Anti-Terror Fight in Region", "The Qatar Crisis and the Eastern Flank of the Arab World", https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/qatar-rejects-saudi-arabias-threats-on-s-400-delivery-envoy/, https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2018/06/qatar-fm-impulsive-behaviour-threat-gcc-stability-180604141213105.html, "Saudi, UAE to Attend Gulf Cup in Qatar as Feud Begins to Fade", "Signs Mount That Qatar Embargo May End as Mediation Gears Up", "UPDATE 1-Qatar food imports hit after Arab nations cut ties – trade sources", "Qatar blockade 'unlawful, unjustified and disproportionate', new report says", "Turkey, Qatar, Iran to discuss land trade routes", "Qatar bans goods from UAE, Saudi as embargo anniversary approaches", "Qatari forces participate in Gulf shield drill in Saudi Arabia", "Seeing shared threats, Turkey sets up military base in Qatar", "Shared regional agendas are stimulating the rapid rise of Turkey-Qatar cooperation", "Saudi Arabia closes local al Jazeera office over Qatar's backing for the Muslim Brotherhood", "Q&A: Why Some Countries Are Trying to Muzzle Al-Jazeera", "Saudi Arabia bans the import, sale, renewal of Bein Sports receivers", "A political crisis in the Middle East means free World Cup streaming for millions", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Qatar–Saudi_Arabia_relations&oldid=973301553, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 August 2020, at 13:36. “The trouble with this stuff, it’s not so black and white.”, Shoppers stock up on supplies at a supermarket in Doha, Qatar on Monday. [29] Qatar also used its contacts to help negotiate peaceful exchanges of hostages for the safe evacuation of civilians from areas affected by the Syrian Civil War. "If you are Qatar, you look across the water and you think, when Iran did have the opportunity to take a few Arab islands, they did it." Qatar also manages to annoy its neighbours by conducting its own foreign policy agenda, which plays off both sides. The relationship between the two countries has been severed following the Qatar diplomatic crisis.. In a secret 2009 paper released as part of WikiLeaks cables, then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the country was the largest source of funds to terror groups. Prior to 2017, the two countries maintained cordial ties. Most people would say it's connected with the foundation of Saudi Arabia when Wahhabism classified the proponent of Ottoman empire as a non-Muslims and fought them. From 2016 onwards, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has courted Qatar and Turkey in order to ward off a potential challenge to his leadership by Mohammed Dahlan, who is supported by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. "It's too early to say, but this can turn out to be a major problem for the U.S.," said Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. Qatar has generally supported Hamas, while Saudi Arabia used to support many Palestinian organisations, such as Hamas and the PLO/Fatah however as Hamas won the 2007 election, the level of funding from Saudi Arabia dropped, while level of funding from Iran increased. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. What Is Life Really Like In Catalonia, Spain? How Powerful Is The Organization Of Islamic Cooperation? Share Tweet. "[77] Saudi media also alleged that Iran Revolutionary Guards are protecting Qatar's ruler Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inside his palace. [86] By contrast, Saudi Arabia supported Hosni Mubarak and currently supports Abdel Fattah el-Sisi[87], In February 2015, Egypt–Qatar relations deteriorated after the Egyptian Air Force conducted airstrikes on suspected ISIL positions in neighboring Libya following the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia [1], Even after bilateral relations worsened in the 1990s and 2000s, Qatar still followed the Kingdom's lead in several issues, such as participating in the Saudi-led intervention in Bahrain in 2011,[10] participating in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen in 2015,[11] and recalling its ambassador to Tehran over the 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. Rift to affect fliers connecting through busy Doha hub, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels", "CIA and Saudi weapons for Syrian rebels fueled black market arms trafficking, report says", "How Tiny Qatar 'Punches Above Its Weight, "What is behind the extraordinary Gulf dispute with Qatar? Copyright 2019. “More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” the memo said. It was also demanded that Qatar cut any existing ties with all "terrorist, sectarian and ideological organisations" such as ISIL, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra Front, and Hezbollah, and must concur with any group's addition to the list of terrorist organisations as defined by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt.  Sudan Qatar Emir Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The Financial Times reported in May 2013 that Qatar was becoming a larger provider of arms to the various groups. Saudi Arabia was initially reluctant to support the overthrow of the Assad government, despite its reliance on Iran. Qatar is no outlier to the West: It is scheduled to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a month-long international soccer tournament and the world's most popular sports event. RELATED: What does Qatar crisis mean for World Cup? No clear explanation was given for Saudi Arabia's decision to ban the network except that its government made the decision out of "concern for the rights of its citizens and residents". Qatar is predominantly Sunni and is a member of the coalition but has close economic ties with Iran, including sharing a major offshore gas reserve. It also followed weeks of rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and its neighbours, including Qatari accusations of a concerted media campaign against it and the alleged hacking of its official news agency. “The Shia are generally a minority in Arab Gulf states and are not well integrated,” Prof Piscatori said. It is the most popular network in the Middle East, and its news network has criticized foreign governments involved in the dispute and been accused of supporting Qatari interests. [55] The government of Egypt has long viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as "enemy number one". [10][38] Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been involved in the CIA–led Timber Sycamore covert operation to train and arm Syrian rebels. [33] A senior fellow of Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations concludes that "There's a recognition of the general tendencies of the Gulf states to hedge their bets,"There's always a question in the back of the minds of the leadership--how much faith can they put in the U.S.? The Saudi-led coalition against Qatar has demanded that al-Jazeera be shut down. Mohamed bin Salman tried to have the US blessing during Trump's visit to Saudi to force Qatar to its knees, and go back home with a win that would give him more popularity in Saudi Arabia, easing his journey to power. [17] This was an important phase in Qatar's pivot from Saudi influence, since the US base guaranteed Qatar's protection against any possible military interventions by Saudi Arabia and its allies. Both rivals also backed the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key ally of Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. In 1996, the Qatari government launched Al Jazeera in a bid to consolidate soft power. [73], Arab media claimed that Qatar has secretly accepted to become part of an Iranian Shia sphere of influence that Tehran is trying to create in the Middle East, and which would include Lebanon (Hezbollah), Syria (Assad), and Iraq (Shia-majority government)[74] and that, in a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Emir Al Thani said he wanted the ties with Iran to be "stronger than ever before. [21], Since he took power in 1995, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani believed Qatar could find security only by transforming itself from a Saudi appendage to a rival of Saudi Arabia.  Egypt (from 2013) Clearly there has been something going on for about a month now with other Gulfies criticising Qatar more and more. [11] At the onset of the Qatar diplomatic crisis in June 2017, Saudi Arabia suspended Qatar's involvement in the Yemen campaign. Relations were less cosy when Barack Obama was leader due to differences of opinion on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the administration’s concerns about the civilian toll of the Saudi-led war in Yemen. [76] Arab media also claimed that a member of Qatar's ruling House of Thani, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al Thani, tweeted that Qatar's ruler Tamim has "joined forces with Iran against your brothers and set up terrorist groups and published electronic battalions to beat your opponents. [49], In 2002, Saudi Arabia removed their ambassador from Qatar over Al Jazeera's alleged critical stance towards Saudi Arabia. ................................ Advertisement ................................ Why Saudi Arabia Hates Al Jazeera So Much.