Arabian Peninsula / Persian Gulf update 6/25/2017...what Saudis don't want you to know

This is what Saudis don’t want you to know

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House of Saudi Cards: The Inside Story

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201706241054941082-saudi-house-of-cards-inside-story/

Pepe Escobar

Just when geopolitical practitioners were betting on regime change in Qatar – orchestrated by a desperate House of Saud – regime change ended up happening in Riyadh, orchestrated by Warrior Prince, Destroyer of Yemen and Blockader of Qatar, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS).

Considering the impenetrability of that desert petrodollar family oligarchy impersonating a nation it’s up to a few foreigners granted access to make sense of the latest Arabian Game of Thrones. It also does not help that the “largesse” of Saudi – and Emirati – lobbies in Washington reduces virtually every think tank and hack in sight to abject sycophancy.

A top Middle East source close to the House of Saud, and a de facto dissident of the Beltway consensus, minces no words; “The CIA is very displeased with the firing of [former Crown Prince] Mohammad bin Nayef. Mohammad bin Salman is regarded as sponsoring terrorism. In April 2014 the entire royal families of the UAE and Saudi Arabia were to be ousted by the US over terrorism. A compromise was worked out that Nayef would take over running the Kingdom to stop it.”

Before the Riyadh coup, an insistent narrative had been pervading selected Middle East geopolitical circles according to which US intel, “indirectly”, stopped another coup against the young Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, orchestrated by Mohammad bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, with help from Blackwater/Academi’s Eric Prince’s army of mercenaries in the UAE. Zayed, crucially, happens to be MBS’s mentor……………………………..

…………………..MBS is betting everything on his Vision 2030 – which in theory might propel the Saudi economy beyond oil monoculture, but implies a virtually impossible political aggiornamento; after all the House of Saudi Cards is un-reformable. Take the risible list of 13 demands now imposed on Qatar – that’s MBS’s work – including the bellicose virtual excommunication of Iran and shutting down al-Jazeera. No wonder every major geopolitical player is now gaming war scenarios – although only Germany stated its concerns on the record. Qatar is a NATO observer. Doha is adamant; it won’t fold to the absurd Saudi demands. What next; will MBS – the most dangerous “leader” in geopolitics today – lose face or launch yet another, demented, unwinnable and this time globally-convulsing war?

What are the conditions demanded by Saudis?

Furious Qatar Balks At Saudi Ultimatum As UAE Warns Of “Parting Of Ways” | Zero Hedge

One day after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf ally states finally released a long-awaited, 10-day ultimatum containing 13 demands from Qatar as a precondition for the resumption of diplomatic ties and an end of Qatar’s economic and naval blockade, the small Gulf nation balked and said the ultimatum is neither “reasonable” nor “realistic”, and infringes on its sovereignty and foreign policy.

“This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning – the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy” said Sheikh Saif Al Thani, director of Qatar’s government communications office, in a statement to Bloomberg.

As a reminder, the full list contained such demands as reducing diplomatic representation with Iran, shutting down the Turkish military base that is being established (Turkey has already balked at the threat), severing ties with terrorist organization, shutting down Al Jazeera and all affiliated channels, and so on. The demands are explicitly aimed at dismantling Qatar’s two-decade-old interventionist foreign policy, which has reflected the clout generated by its vast natural gas and oil wealth but incensed conservative Arab peers over its alleged support for Islamists they regard as mortal threats to their dynastic rule.

Al Thani dismissed the demands and said that while the list is “currently under review”, it is only “out of respect for our brothers in Kuwait” whose emissary delivered the Saudi-led demands Friday. Al Thani said that the demands do not meet the US and UK criteria for “reasonable and realistic measures.”

Meanwhile Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it will soon issue an official response, one which we doubt Saudi Arabia will like as the bid/ask in the early stage of the negotiations is being established.

“The State of Qatar is currently studying this paper, the demands contained therein and the foundations on which they were based, in order to prepare an appropriate response,” the ministry told Channel News Asia.

On Friday, Qatar’s news outlet Al Jazeera responded to Saudi demands that it be shut down as part of the “renormalization” process. “We in the network believe that any call for closing down Al Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress people’s right to information,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

“By accepting those demands and conditions Qatar will be subject to international accountability and violating its commitments regarding human rights conventions,” Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee said in a statement cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, a senior United Arab Emirates official told Reuters what would happen if Qatar refused to comply with the Arab ultimatum, saying there would be a “parting of ways.”

“The alternative is not escalation, the alternative is parting of ways, because it is very difficult for us to maintain a collective grouping,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters.

Gargash urged Qatar to meet the demands. “It would be wiser that [Qatar] deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors or a divorce will take place,” Anwar Gargash said on Twitter in Arabic, adding, that “the crisis is profound.”

He added that while diplomacy with Qatar remained a priority, that mediation efforts to resolve the dispute had been undermined by the public disclosure of the demands. “The mediators’ ability to shuttle between the parties and try and reach a common ground has been compromised by this leak,” he said. “Their success is very dependent on their ability to move but not in the public space.”

In other words, another attempt at a backdoor deal orchestrated by Saudi Arabia failed because someone leaked something, only this time it didn’t involve Trump being a KGB secret agent.

Gargash said that if Qatar fails to comply within the 10-day timeline set out in the ultimatum, it will be isolated. But he did not make clear what more could be done since the four Arab nations have already cut diplomatic relations with Doha and severed most commercial ties.

Despite the verbal assurance that there will be no further escalation, Qatar is preparing for the worst, as two contingents of Turkish troops with columns of armored vehicles have arrived in Doha since the worst crisis among Gulf Arab states for years erupted on June 5. Gargash said the Turkish deployment was a “meaningless escalation” and he hoped Ankara would act in a “reasonable way” adding that “we hope that Turkey prioritizes the interest of the Turkish state and not partisan ideology,” Gargash said.

The uncompromising positions adopted by both sides leave little prospect for a quick end to the crisis. The sanctions have disrupted Qatar’s main import routes by land from Saudi Arabia and by sea from big container ships docked in the United Arab Emirates. But Qatar so far has avoided economic collapse by quickly finding alternative channels and says its huge financial reserves will meet any challenges……………………………….

Egypt’s Alliance with Saudi Arabia Shows Signs of Stress

Rifts Widening Among Riyadh, Allies over Qatar

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960404001075

A leading Arab daily disclosed that the Jordanian government has declared to Qatar that it has rejected the list of the terrorist groups presented by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, after the latter group of countries asked Doha to cut off ties with a number of Islamist groups.

Al-Rai al-Youm newspaper reported that after the recent crisis between Qatar and the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states and their demands from Doha, Jordan informed Qatar that the list of the terrorist groups presented by Saudi Arabia and its allies that also includes Ikhwan al-Muslimoun (Muslim Brotherhood) is not at all endorsed by Amman. Informed sources told the Arab daily that Jordan is opposed to other Arab countries’ positions against Hamas and Ikhwan al-Muslimoun as members of Ikhwan are lawmakers at the Jordanian parliament. Jordan has underlined that it would never agree to endorse the list of terrorist groups released by certain Arab countries.

A prominent Arab analyst said earlier this month that Qatar’s support for Ikhwan al-Muslimin is not the main reason for certain Arab countries’ pressures and boycotts but Doha’s refusal to bow to the US demand for money is the real cause. “There is no doubt that the fire of crisis between Qatar and Saudi Arabia flared after US President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh,” Hoda Jannat wrote in Tunis al-Aan news website. Before visiting Riyadh, Trump had called on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to collect nearly $1.5 trillion before he leaves the Arab country to be able to quiet his critics in the US, the analyst wrote.

Most of the Arab regional countries had agreed to pay this money to protect their monarchies but Qatar retreated from its promise suddenly and infuriated the Saudi and UAE leaders, Jannat concluded. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar earlier this month, and suspended air and sea communication one week after the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh.

Later, Libya and Maldives joined that list of nation to break off diplomatic relations with Doha. Jordan also announced Wednesday that Amman has decided to reduce its diplomatic status after studying reasons behind the tension between Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Manama with Qatar. After his visit to Riyadh, Trump accused Qatar of being involved with radicalism and supporting terrorism and backed Saudi Arabia in its new campaign project against Doha.

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