Is it possible to reconcile with Qatar’s authority?

During an address at the recent Doha Forum, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani asked others “not to interfere in countries’ domestic affairs” and reiterated emphasis that “dialogue is what (bridges) the gap between parties no matter how intense disputes are.”

These are beautiful remarks but they contradict the reality of Qatar’s current policies. They even contradict the form and content of the forum itself, which Emir Tamim inaugurated and which was held under the slogan “Shaping Policy in an Interconnected World” at the Sheraton in Doha.

On Sunday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, a mouthpiece of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was launching a fierce attack on Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular and took it upon himself to defend Qatari policies that stir unrest and strife in our countries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was also insulting Saudi Arabia and the UAE from the Doha platform, and he was an active guest distributing smiles with his Qatari and Turkish counterparts while holding hands and smiling to display pleasure and joy!

Contradictory statements

Who supported all the voices insulting Saudi Arabia, years before the Khashoggi crisis erupted?

Who supports satellite channels that fled to Turkey like Mekameleen, ElSharq and others and which mastered spreading fake and poisonous news about Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, specifically Egypt, years before the Khashoggi crisis happened? Who tasked Al Jazeera channels and its brave hosts’ accounts to insult Saudi Arabia, its leadership, state, people, policies and history? Who plunged into the Iranian bosom at the time when Houthi rockets were falling on Riyadh, Najran, Abha and Makkah? Who broke unity, sowed restlessness, spread hatred and reveled in the breeding ground of sedition in Gulf countries not just in Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but also in Kuwait which is praised by the current Qatari authorities’ propaganda?

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There is currently talk that Qatar’s current rulers want to go further in this division and join a new axis whose basis is “Tehran, Baghdad and Ankara” per the Baghdad Pact’s style. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani signaled to this happening while at the Doha Forum as he said: “Regional alliances need reformation, and this requires setting new principles for management.”

Based on all this and other issues from the harvest of what Qatar planted, treating the Qatari problem as a superficial affair like some intellectuals are doing in the Gulf, especially from Kuwait, is hence like sailing into the abyss. The problem has been real with Qatar’s policies – and by the way this is what I believed before the crisis erupted with Qatar – long before last year. I am making this clear for those who may be under the illusion that my stance only came as a result of the Arab quartet’s boycott of Doha.

By the way, and out of clarifying and emphasizing this for some people too, this is all directed towards the policies of Qatar’s current rulers and not towards the decent people of Qatar.

This article is also available in Arabic.

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Saudi journalist Mashari Althaydi presents Al Arabiya News Channel’s “views on the news” daily show “Maraya.” He has previously held the position of a managing senior editor for Saudi Arabia & Gulf region at pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Althaydi has published several papers on political Islam and social history of Saudi Arabia. He appears as a guest on several radio and television programs to discuss the ideologies of extremist groups and terrorists. He tweets under @MAlthaydy.