Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
1–10 of 148 posts
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#2This is as good a summary of what's going on in the GCC these days as I've seen since the blockade began in July, which is to say that everyone can describe what is happening, but no one seems to be able to explain why it is happening. The article's focus on regional leaders' egos is misplaced, I think, and fairly representative of our media's tendency to scrape the surface of any regional conflict that isn't in Europe or North America instead of looking for deeper explanations.
Given the absence of any analytical clarity, pet theories abound. Mine is that the Saudi-UAE nexus doesn't want the crisis to be resolved anytime soon: having a crisis on the periphery to distract from their domestic tribulations is too damned useful. Citizens are are less likely to complain about reduced government subsidies if the government periodically reminds them that there's a cold war with Qatar, a hot war in Yemen, and an existential crisis in the form Iran right on their periphery.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#3This is as good a summary of what's going on in the GCC these days as I've seen since the blockade began in July, which is to say that everyone can describe what is happening, but no one seems to be able to explain why it is happening. The article's focus on regional leaders' egos is misplaced, I think, and fairly representative of our media's tendency to scrape the surface of any regional conflict that isn't in Euro…
Qatar has natural gas and connections to Iran. And is still in the black economically.
When I look at Saudi Arabia it looks like over time their oil income which pays all the bills is fixed while their population keeps growing. Both common poor people and the number of ultra rich. Divide one by the other and it's not pretty.
UAE has no oil or gas income and is living off loans.
Probably part of the reason the current king in waiting is trying to also jack his more distant relations for cash.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#4My knowledge of middle eastern politics is not good, but how does Oman factor into this?
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#5Here is my question for HN readers: do you trust this article? Because it tries to fool us.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Europe, US and Turkey was the big alliance which tried to take down Syria. Please check the records western news channels in 2013, it was full of joyful propaganda about Free Syrian Army fighting for democracy in Syria. The actual goal was of course had nothing to do with democracy and Arab spring was total bullshit. The goal was to create a new pipeline from Qatar to Europe so Europe don’t have to buy gas from Russia. Syria, between Turkey and Jordan was the only barrier for this project. If they removed Assad, Russia would be screwed. This is why Russia got in the field and started fighting back to protect Assad.
In 2014, Qatar and Turkey splitted from this alliance because they realized that Russia will not let Syria down. That was also the time FSA split into bunch of groups; Wahabist ISIS and socialist YPG. Noone ever questioned how a group backed by Saudi money would fight another backed by American money. Western news brainwashed the whole world with ISIS and YPG, people don’t even remember what did happen before; Russia won the war in both Ukraine and Syria, at same time.
This is the deal; the war is lost, and the alliance is defeated & splitted. Qatar and Turkey are now enemies on the Russian side. The western alliance tried hard to take down their presidents by organizing coups but it failed. Qatar will survive just as Iran, Syria and Russia.
The article is just another Western propaganda painting a middle eastern enemy as “little lone wolf”, and people just buy this stuff easily in the propaganda bubble they live in.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#6Pretty good article although, it is still very soft on Saudi Arabia and too intent to glamorize bin Salman. But american media has always been intent on glamorizing bin Salman.
What really pisses me off about this whole story is the role Trump played. It is not surprising to see Saudi Arabia and the Emirates to suddenly gang up in an surprising all out attack on Qatar in one morning. These types of intrigues happen in the Middle East quite often. What is unusual and very disappointing is that the US president also joined in the gang with his tweets. And the initial tweet was timed to come in exactly before the sanctions were announced ... it looked like the whole thing was carefully coordinated (even if it wasn't, it looked like it was and that is enough to damage the US reputation).
And then when Tillerson was out there trying to diffuse the subject and ensure the safety of out base, Trump actually undermined him.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#7This is as good a summary of what's going on in the GCC these days as I've seen since the blockade began in July, which is to say that everyone can describe what is happening, but no one seems to be able to explain why it is happening. The article's focus on regional leaders' egos is misplaced, I think, and fairly representative of our media's tendency to scrape the surface of any regional conflict that isn't in Euro…
Qatar has natural gas and connections to Iran. And is still in the black economically. When I look at Saudi Arabia it looks like over time their oil income which pays all the bills is fixed while their population keeps growing. Both common poor people and the number of ultra rich. Divide one by the other and it's not pretty. UAE has no oil or gas income and is living off loans. Probably part of the reason the current…
UAE has the seventh [1] largest oil reserves in the world, and is the eighth [2] largest producer, according to Wikipedia. How does it not have any income? Meanwhile, Qatar produces about half as much, on par with nations such as Norway.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_the_United_Ara...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_produ...
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#8This is as good a summary of what's going on in the GCC these days as I've seen since the blockade began in July, which is to say that everyone can describe what is happening, but no one seems to be able to explain why it is happening. The article's focus on regional leaders' egos is misplaced, I think, and fairly representative of our media's tendency to scrape the surface of any regional conflict that isn't in Euro…
Al Jazeera has got to have something to do with it, right? The biggest threats to royalty are always their subjects, and even if AJ is somewhat discredited as Qatari propaganda in its neighbor's societies, it is also certainly more than that. As someone from a different hemisphere, I have to say the AJ Roku app is the single best way I've found to watch news. No one is risking the ire of his rulers to check out what the Saudi news department is saying.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#9This article sounds like it was funded by Qatar. If it got published then it probably means the US is souring on the Saudi/UAE ruse.
Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It
#10Here is my question for HN readers: do you trust this article? Because it tries to fool us. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Europe, US and Turkey was the big alliance which tried to take down Syria. Please check the records western news channels in 2013, it was full of joyful propaganda about Free Syrian Army fighting for democracy in Syria. The actual goal was of course had nothing to do with democracy and Arab spring was tota…
You are completely misreading this article. It isn't painting Qatar as any kind of enemy - the article reads as very sympathetic to the Qatari position (which basically is that the Saudis consider it a vassal and aren't happy with it daring to have an independent foreign policy).