Qatar and Iran are now united

We are now playing with open cards. Qatar and Iran have united in every place where they funded warring groups.

When Qatar supported al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front in Syria, they actually fought popular Syrian factions more than they fought the Syrian regime. Meanwhile, Iran also supported Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Syria to fight popular Syrian units. Qatar and Iran are thus united in Syria and are not rivals.

Qatar supported al-Qaeda in Yemen while Iran supported the Houthis. Both fought legitimacy there and did not fight against each other. Doha and Tehran are therefore also united in Yemen.

What unites Qatar and Iran is not just the northern oil field. What they also have in common is their rivalry toward Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf countries and their desire to topple governance there and dismantle the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Qatar and Iran are partners, and the bonds between them are stronger than bonds between Qatar and Gulf countries. Iran and Qatar fund the most dangerous project in the Middle East with the aim to topple its countries.

Qatar donated money to fund Sunni terrorist groups and Iran donated money to fund Shiite terrorist groups. Both pushed these groups to fight in Arab countries and to undermine the bases of the Arab state.

Funding exposed

Now that this funding is exposed, they will unite in publicly funding and supporting the most foolish Arab groups, whether Sunni ones or Shiite, in support of Iran’s and the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guides.

Can you imagine the irony! Can you imagine those funding al-Nusra embracing the funder of Hezbollah? Can you imagine al-Qaeda’s funder and the funder of the Houthis announcing the close ties between them?

The most important question is how will the Qatari government impose a reality which it is not easy to subjugate people to? The Qatari people may have their own opinion about certain affairs and in this case we wonder what will their opinion be about normalizing relations with Iran?

Even if the relations of the Qatari regime – as governed by Hamad bin Khalifa and Hamad bin Jassim – with Iran are very normal, it seems impossible for the Qatari people to establish relations with the Iranians at the expense of their Gulf brothers.

This is not chauvinism or sectarian or ethnic intolerance but simply about blood relations which are irrelevant to politics. Removing the Qatari people from their ordinary family and convincing them that their Iranian step father is better than their Gulf father will be impossible.

Even if Doha’s relations with Tehran are normal, Qatar’s relations with the GCC will be impossible under the governance of Hamad bin Khalifa and Hamad bin Jassim. Qatar’s rivalry and hostility is deep especially considering it has agreed to be used as a Trojan horse by Iran to storm the GCC’s fort – something that no one in the Gulf will accept.

This article is also available in Arabic.
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Sawsan Al Shaer is a Bahraini writer and journalist. She tweets under the handle @sawsanalshaer.