اقرأ باللغة العربية The crisis between Qatar and the states that have declared a boycott against it (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain) has exposed the designs of the many players and their roles behind the scenes. It has also exposed what is lacking in the confrontation, since there is much work to be done in order to eliminate the bases that fund and shelter terrorism in the Arab region and in a number of world capitals. Qatar is not so much a state in the geopolitical sense of term, meaning a country with defined boundaries and a defined population, as an entity that has had the role of a state tailored for it. Since it emerged as an independent sovereign entity overlooking the Gulf, Qatar has sought to take a place for itself amidst powerful neighbours such as Saudi Arabia with its vast political and religious influence, Iran on the opposite side of the Gulf with its Persian and Safavid heritage and Iraq at a time when Baghdad was a force to be reckoned with in the Gulf region. Qatar was willing to serve as a tool for foreign powers in exchange for the backing and cover it needed. It therefore allowed foreign military bases on its territory and in the process imagined that the mere presence of these bases, American pre-eminently, gave it the licence to assert itself in various ways in the region. Its huge revenues from natural gas helped, of course, and it simultaneously moved to establish close relations with three countries hostile to the Arab nationalist project — Israel, Turkey and Iran. To advance its ambitions, Qatar needed forces that could serve as instruments to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries in the Arab region. It found the perfect answer in the assorted jihadist varieties of the Islamist movements that at the time were being primed by Western capitals, notably London and Washington, to play certain roles as alternatives to the existing regimes in the region, especially in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and Libya. Qatar was perfectly poised to champion the Islamist movements. For years it had served as a refuge for Muslim Brotherhood members from elsewhere in the region and especially for members of that organisation's underground paramilitary wing, known as the Qotbist wing in a reference to Brotherhood ideologue Sayed Qotb. The Muslim Brotherhood quickly extended its influence throughout the emirate, with its members taking up key positions in Qatar's religious, legislative and educational institutions, as well as in the corridors of its decision-making centres. In addition to foreign military bases and extremist Islamist ideological tools, Qatar needed a powerful media machine for its purposes. Accordingly, it devised a strategy that involved the creation of a new television channel that would target Arab viewers while benefiting from the experience of the BBC and BBC staff. Initially, this TV channel, dubbed Al-Jazeera, operated in accordance with a professional editorial policy designed to win credibility among Arab audiences as well as audiences abroad. But this was only true until the time came to capitalise on its new-found credibility in order to steer events and set an agenda through which it could shape the public mood, much as the US channel CNN was also doing at the time. Qatar also sought to acquire militia arms in the region, which it needed in order to impose itself as a stakeholder in any conflict, negotiating process or solution-finding mechanism. A case in point is the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which has not only served as a resistance force against the Israeli occupation but also trained jihadist combatants and supported logistical and training support for operatives working against Egypt that subsequently coalesced into an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood when it came to power in Egypt. In like manner, Qatar has fostered and supported paramilitary groups that it has used to destroy a regime or institutions in any government that Doha has disapproved of. Accordingly, it has sponsored Al-Qaeda and then the Islamic State (IS) group and the Al-Nusra Front and, before all of these, the Muslim Brotherhood in every Arab country and elsewhere in the world where that organisation has bases. The boycott crisis reveals the magnitude of the international logistical and political support and protection that Qatar enjoys for serving the functions that Western and regional powers require from it but that these powers do not want exposed to world opinion. It has been striking how keen Washington, Berlin, London and other Western capitals have been to characterise the Arab embargo on Qatar as a “Gulf” crisis, for example, excluding the Egyptian role and reducing events to an outburst of bickering among Gulf brothers that would eventually be smoothed over. These powers have also sought to portray the demands of the four boycotting countries as excessive and unrealisable. Moreover, some of the same capitals have advised Doha to militarise the conflict by inviting in foreign forces from its allies on the pretext that it needs these forces to defend itself from an imminent attack from its neighbours. Doha has asked for troops from Iran and Turkey, as well as from the US bases in Al-Udeid and Al-Sayliyah in Qatar itself. Qatari officials have stated that they are prepared to resist any military action to the last drop of Qatari blood, in spite of the fact that none of the boycotting countries have uttered a word or made the slightest insinuation regarding military action or any intention to change the Qatari regime by force of arms. Another ruse used by Qatar with help from the intelligence agencies of its regional and international backers has been to cast the crisis as an attack against civil liberties. It points to the demand to close down Al-Jazeera as though this television station were not in the business of inciting violence and hatred and promoting terrorism but was instead a podium for the advocacy of democratic freedoms and the defence of the marginalised and oppressed under the dictatorial regimes of the region. It is from behind this thin disguise that Al-Jazeera in fact disseminates poisonous propaganda intended to provoke sedition and strife in other countries and violence against their sovereign institutions. Qatar's friends and allies in supporting terrorism and terrorists will not allow the country to fall or be exposed. To be more precise, they will not allow the ruling Al-Thani dynasty in Qatar to topple and ultimately reveal secrets concerning the powers that support terrorism in the region and the wider world. Therefore, they are attempting to put pressure on the quartet countries opposing Qatar, hoping to see them lift the embargo in order to prevent the crisis from becoming a model for how to deal with other capitals that support terrorism such as Ankara, Tel Aviv, Tehran, London and Washington. The continued cohesion and solidarity of the quartet and the inclusion of other countries into it is crucial in order to expose the truth about what has happened and continues to happen in the Middle East during the post-Arab Spring era. If this front is defeated or forced to back down, the region will end up paying the price in the form of further unrest, civil strife and destruction. These perils will extend to all quarters of the region, including those capitals that prefer to remain silent about the crimes of the Al-Thani dynasty, the scorpion's tail that is ready to sting every country in the region.
