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Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

nytimes.com

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Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#11

Post by jessaustin »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #7
Gibbon1 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

UAE royals spend a great deal more on racehorses...

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#13

Post by lobster_johnson »

jessaustin wrote: post #11
lobster_johnson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

UAE royals spend a great deal more on racehorses...

Parent said income, not profits.

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#14

Post by sndean »

Hasz wrote: post #4

My knowledge of middle eastern politics is not good, but how does Oman factor into this?

A while ago I saw that Qatar was getting around some of the transport restrictions imposed in the Gulf by using ports in Oman.

Edit: Here's an article that tries to answer your question: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/oman-stance-qatar-gul...

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#15

Post by roadbeats »

caf wrote: post #10
_fwu1 wrote: post #5

Here 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).

I can't imagine a "very sympathetic" article accusing a country for hosting "terrorists". Did we read the same article ?

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#16

Post by _mhr_ »

roadbeats wrote: post #15
caf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I can't imagine a "very sympathetic" article accusing a country for hosting "terrorists". Did we read the same article ?

I read it as going both ways. Accuses the Qataris of, at the very least, turning a blind eye towards terrorism while also depicting their sympathetic plight. It isn't black and white. If anything, it's too sympathetic and glamourizing.

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#17

Post by nashashmi »

_fwu1 wrote: post #5

Here 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…

Your information has depth. What articles have you been reading? I want to learn more.

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#18

Post by nikcub »

_fwu1 wrote: post #5

Here 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…

> Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Europe, US and Turkey was the big alliance which tried to take down Syria.

This isn't true - they have all backed different factions in the conflict against the Syrian government, against ISIS and today against one another in Idlib.

Assuming they defeated the Syria government this conflict was always going to split down the differing interests between the Saudis and Qataris

The succinct way (as always, this stuff is a lot more complicated than surface reporting) Qatar are the largest foreign opposition backers in Syria and supported in order the Army of Conquest and today Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)

The Saudi's are likely the second largest foreign backers in Syria and started out supporting FSA and other groups but today have their own umbrella group called Ahrar al-Sham.

HTS and Ahrar al-Sham have been in conflict for some time now and in all out war for some months now in Idlib (would always eventually happen - they're just squabbling over a lot less today)

The USA, Russia and Turkey all have their own groups that they support but the alliances have almost always fallen along axis of Turkey-Qatar on one side and Saudi-Jordan-UAE-USA on the other

What the OP article has left out is the conflict in Libya which makes this split a lot clearer. Qatar backed the Islamist group that took over a lot of Libya. In the new civil war (the one that no one cares about) the Saudi's and former Gadaffi loyalists have formed an anti-Islamist alternate government.

The UAE and Egypt have sent fighter jets to bomb the Qatari-backed side in this conflict[0][1]

It was a big deal in the Arab world (and I can't believe it isn't mentioned in the NYTimes piece) when militants raised a Qatari flag over Ghadaffi's palace - that was a "holy shit that could be us next" moment for many of these Arab nations and hardened their opposition to Qatar[2]

Also only vaguely mentioned in the article is that Qatar and Kuwait are a huge source of the financing for ISIS. The governments there may not have an official position of supporting ISIS - but they sure as hell aren't doing much to stop the flow of money from Kuwaiti and Qatari citizens to ISIS[3]

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/united-arab-em...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/26/qatar-troops-l...

[2] http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/qatar/raising-of-qatar-s-flag-...

[3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/kuwait/...

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#19

Post by caresource_ta »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #9

This 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.

Why would this article be funded by Qatar? Because it's the same narrative that has existed and been written about for months or because the component facts can be independently researched and verified.

Re: Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It

#20

Post by roadbeats »

_mhr_ wrote: post #16
roadbeats wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine a "very sympathetic" article accusing a country for hosting "terrorists". Did we read the same article ?

I read it as going both ways. Accuses the Qataris of, at the very least, turning a blind eye towards terrorism while also depicting their sympathetic plight. It isn't black and white. If anything, it's too sympathetic and glamourizing.

Every story has two versions as you know. If you ask Qatari leaders, they'll show the proofs of how Saudi planes carrying drugs and weapons to ISIS got busted in Lebanon.
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