
Tiny, Wealthy Qatar Goes Its Own Way, and Pays for It - SREinSF
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/world/middleeast/qatar-saudi-emir-boycott.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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kchoudhu
This is as good a summary of what's going on in the GCC these days as I've
seen since the blockade began in July, which is to say that everyone can
describe _what_ is happening, but no one seems to be able to explain _why_ it
is happening. The article's focus on regional leaders' egos is misplaced, I
think, and fairly representative of our media's tendency to scrape the surface
of any regional conflict that isn't in Europe or North America instead of
looking for deeper explanations.

Given the absence of any analytical clarity, pet theories abound. Mine is that
the Saudi-UAE nexus doesn't want the crisis to be resolved anytime soon:
having a crisis on the periphery to distract from their domestic tribulations
is too damned useful. Citizens are are less likely to complain about reduced
government subsidies if the government periodically reminds them that there's
a cold war with Qatar, a hot war in Yemen, and an existential crisis in the
form Iran right on their periphery.

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Gibbon1
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 king in waiting is trying to also jack
his more distant relations for cash.

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lobster_johnson
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_produ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production)

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

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lobster_johnson
Parent said income, not profits.

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hristov
Pretty good article although, it is still very soft on Saudi Arabia and too
intent to glamorize bin Salman. But american media has always been intent on
glamorizing bin Salman.

What really pisses me off about this whole story is the role Trump played. It
is not surprising to see Saudi Arabia and the Emirates to suddenly gang up in
an surprising all out attack on Qatar in one morning. These types of intrigues
happen in the Middle East quite often. What is unusual and very disappointing
is that the US president also joined in the gang with his tweets. And the
initial tweet was timed to come in exactly before the sanctions were announced
... it looked like the whole thing was carefully coordinated (even if it
wasn't, it looked like it was and that is enough to damage the US reputation).

And then when Tillerson was out there trying to diffuse the subject and ensure
the safety of out base, Trump actually undermined him.

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jimjimjim
don't forget the pictures of them all touching the orb...

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roadbeats
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 total bullshit. The goal was to create a new pipeline from Qatar to
Europe so Europe don’t have to buy gas from Russia. Syria, between Turkey and
Jordan was the only barrier for this project. If they removed Assad, Russia
would be screwed. This is why Russia got in the field and started fighting
back to protect Assad.

In 2014, Qatar and Turkey splitted from this alliance because they realized
that Russia will not let Syria down. That was also the time FSA split into
bunch of groups; Wahabist ISIS and socialist YPG. Noone ever questioned how a
group backed by Saudi money would fight another backed by American money.
Western news brainwashed the whole world with ISIS and YPG, people don’t even
remember what did happen before; Russia won the war in both Ukraine and Syria,
at same time.

This is the deal; the war is lost, and the alliance is defeated & splitted.
Qatar and Turkey are now enemies on the Russian side. The western alliance
tried hard to take down their presidents by organizing coups but it failed.
Qatar will survive just as Iran, Syria and Russia.

The article is just another Western propaganda painting a middle eastern enemy
as “little lone wolf”, and people just buy this stuff easily in the propaganda
bubble they live in.

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rgbrenner
_The goal was to create a new pipeline from Qatar to Europe so Europe don’t
have to buy gas from Russia._

Your missing something obvious with this conspiracy theory. Look at a map.
Iraq borders both SA and Turkey. It would be cheaper to build through Iraq
than destabilize an entire country.

Believe it or not, every time something goes wrong in the world, the US is not
behind it. These conspiracy theories help no one.

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Reason077
_" It would be cheaper to build through Iraq than destabilize an entire
country."_

Except that at the time, Iraq was itself a highly unstable conflict zone.
Building a pipeline in those conditions was not viable, and probably still
isn't.

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geezerjay
> Except that at the time, Iraq was itself a highly unstable conflict zone.

I fail to see how turning Syria into an unstable conflict zone would help.

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Reason077
Nobody set out to cause a long-lasting, destructive conflict in Syria. Those
who were backing the opposition factions were no doubt hoping for a quick,
orderly transition of power. But obviously it didn't work out that way.

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geezerjay
> Nobody set out to cause a long-lasting, destructive conflict in Syria.

That's precisely the point. Nobody set out to cause long-lasting, destructive
conflict in Iraq as well.

Furthermore, in Iraq there was a multinational coallition allocating hefty
amounts of resourses to ensure a clean politically advantgeous outcome, while
the war in Syria would be, according to that conspiracy theory, at best a
covert operation leading to a drawn out conflict.

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KaoruAoiShiho
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.

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caresource_ta
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.

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myf01d
Qatar is the biggest sponsor of Islamic radicalism and terrorism all over the
world. They also pay western politicians and media to tarnish their neighbor
countries especially Egypt.

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afroboy
Seriously? where are you proofs? and if your fictional proofs exist then why
they didn't took Qatar into international court.

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myf01d
If you really want to look for proofs, you can google it. I am an Arab and
since the the mid 90s Qatar has been providing all Sunni islamic groups from
MB, Hamas and Al Qaeda with all kinds of support (money, media, bribing
western politicians, etc...)

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joosters
So you’re saying you have all the inside scoop on terrorism just because
you’re an Arab? You should get a job in the US intelligence agencies, they
seem to have similar thoughts!

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ptaipale
I would guess a lot of it is not really inside information, just the ability
to read Arabic-language media.

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

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sndean
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...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/oman-stance-qatar-gulf-
crisis-171125061013462.html)

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AngeloAnolin
Anyone has a non-paywalled link for this?

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gwbas1c
I thought hacker news is a politics-free site?

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gpvos
Not completely. We had that as a rule for a short while, but it wasn't really
workable.

