by Ghassan Kadi
When Qatar received its independence from Britain in 1971, its population was a meagre 100,000. Fifty years or so later, its population has ballooned to nearly 2.2 million, but only 275,000 are actual Qataris. The rest are not migrants, they are not going to be integrated in the population as fully fledged citizens, they are simply hired expats on contracts, performing different tasks, and when they finish their work, they return to their homes.
In the few centuries leading up to its independence, successive Qatari emirs have engaged in fierce battles with rulers of Bahrain and the Wahhabis of Najd (to become later on Saudi Arabia). The Al-Thani family took the throne by the mid nineteenth century, and they continue to do so today.
The peninsula that was marred by regional and tribal conflict was otherwise a quaint pearling centre until oil was discovered in the 1930’s.
When the British declared Qatar as a protectorate, a reciprocal deal was struck between the Qatari rulers and the British, in which Britain wanted to secure safe trade routes whilst the Qataris needed protection from their neighbours and rivals.
The new-found oil wealth might have reduced the need of those warring tribes to continue fighting over limited resources, but their rivalries and hatred towards each other did not go away. As a matter of fact, Qatar refused to join the United Arab Emirates and chose independence instead.
The seemingly united Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is in reality a consortium of ancient enemies who were brought together by common fear over their wealth from would-be invaders. Certainly, over and above their fear of each other, they also fear Iran and this fear goes back to the days of the Shah and beyond, and it is much deeper than a sheer sectarian Sunni-Shiite hatred.
Security has always been a Qatari obsession, and it doesn’t take much research effort to read about the many military conflicts that the Qataris have had with their neighbours. It’s a long story of deception, treachery, distrust, invasions and pillaging. And what is interesting is to note that historically speaking, the Qatari rulers had no qualms seeking protection from friends afar against their local neighbours.
But why would a country, which has never been a true state in its own right till very recently, a so-called nation that has a population that is no bigger than that of a single district of Damascus, Aleppo or Baghdad, why would such a tiny insignificant entity want to be a regional leader? And why would it be so adamant about using Islamist Jihadists to destroy much older and bigger states like Iraq, Libya and Syria?
The more one looks into what Qatar is doing, the question of why it is doing so become less significant. The question changes from why is Qatar doing what it is doing to the question of what Qatar really is.
Qatar is not a nation. It does not have the foundations of a nation. Qatar is not even a state when it has the population of a municipality, and it is definitely not a regional leader.
Qatar ought to be seen for what it is. Qatar is simply a very big and rich company. It is not any different from Shell Oil or BP, with the single difference that it has a UN-given mandate that gives it a seat as a UN member and the legitimacy that comes with it, something that private corporations do not have.
This is on the political scene. On the military scene, Qatar is a much more sinister “company”. In this respect, it is not a Western partner, a colony, a vassal state, an agent state or an ally in strategic military alliance.
Qatar is simply an outpost, a precinct, but not for America as first comes to one’s mind.
The rise of Blackwater Security Company to prominence, a couple of decades ago, raised some eyebrows about the nature of future reliance of rich states on hired security. Qatar most certainly depends on the USA for its defence, just like historically it has depended on Britain. Strategically, it has reciprocated favours with the American “Big Brother” when it offered its soil as a base to launch the attacks on Saddam.
Geopolitically, Qatar has played a big role serving the interests of the same “Big Brother” in Syria. It spent billions on munitions to supply Al-Nusra Front, and other terrorist organizations within Syria. Speaking of Syria, one should not forget the huge role that Qatar played in Libya against Gaddafi.
In both Libya and Syria, the role of Qatar was not restricted to financing revolts, but Qatar has also contributed significantly to the propaganda campaign, using its elaborate Al-Jazeera network to ramp up public anger against both Gaddafi and Assad.
Al-Jazeera has gone to the extent of staging events in Hollywood style productions, creating backgrounds that are similar to iconic places in major Syrian towns and filming scenes of actors dressed up in Syrian Army uniforms performing massacres against civilians.
So once again, how and why would such a small “nation” be so adamant on destroying Syria?
And here’s another big question. America has a major ally in the Arabian Peninsula, and this ally is Saudi Arabia, so why does America need another major ally in the same region? Convenience can be an answer to some situations. For example, when the US needed a base on the ground to attack Iraq, it couldn’t have used Saudi soil (being Muslim holy ground) without angering the Muslim street to an extreme, so Qatar was a handy religiously-neutral ground. By why does the US need Qatar in the fight against Syria? And why would America continue to intimidate its Saudi friends by appeasing their Qatari rivals?
A closer analysis clearly shows that Saudi and Qatari policies in Syria have had many congruencies, but some stark differences as well. In Egypt, The Qataris supported the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi and the Saudis did not. In as much that they both sponsored all terrorist organizations, Saudi Arabia primarily backed the “Free Syria Army” (FSA), The Army of Islam and other minor organizations, whilst Qatar was the main backer of Al-Nusra Front and what later became ISIS.
The polarization of Qatar with Turkey forming an MB-based front against Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabi-Salafist front became more obvious when Qatar absconded and refused to attend GCC meetings. Needless to say that the major leadership rival for Saudi Arabia is the Sunni Turkey, not the Shiite Iran.
What is least obvious behind the Turkish-backed support of Qatar is the silent partner; Israel. Now, after the downing of the Su-24, Erdogan wants to build a military base in Qatar. How odd indeed? Why does Turkey need a base in Qatar? And how would America allow having a non-American base in Qatar?
Perhaps the question becomes easier to answer if we ask it in a different manner; if we ask who is it that really needs a military base in Qatar? Again, the only non-Qatari party that would love to have a base in Qatar is none but Israel.
It is easy to allow imagination to fly and go astray, but given the American-Iranian nuclear deal, any Israeli attack on Iran needs a launch pad that is close enough to Tehran, and you cannot get much closer than Qatar. Is the proposed Turkish base in Qatar going to be a disguised Israeli base? This is not a far-fetched speculation.
The relationship between Qatar and Israel is weird, unique, and perhaps the first of its kind. Qatar is not hiring Israel for a fee per se. Israel is protecting the “company” of Qatar and using its UN state membership status to legitimize actions that can only be sanctioned by states; a new type of warfare that not even Blackwater is capable of doing.
Qatar is neither a nation nor a state. It is a major corporation like Haliburton. It has a UN-given guise of a state, but it is a corporation that seeks survival and in doing so, it has contracted its security to Israel. Strategically and geopolitically, Qatar is an extension of Israel in the Gulf, an Israeli outpost and precinct. Its aspirations for regional leadership are just a façade created to hide its actual substance and to mislead observers from what it really is.
A clan with 200,000 subjects who need 2 million foreign expats to look after them, ten expats for each national, in order to make sure that water and hospitals are running, there is food on the supermarket shelves, and teachers are there to teach their children, is not by any measure a regional leader, a self-respecting nation, let alone a nation. A tribe is perhaps a good description of Qatar, but the word “company” hits the nail on the head.
The Al-Thani clan, the owners of the “company” aka Qatar, have gone the full circle. They are back on the track of their treacherous predecessors who were prepared to sign off to the devil in order to guarantee their security. This is exactly what the current Qatari royals are doing with Israel, and the best protection Qatar can get from Israel is by covertly striking a deal with Israel in which Qatar is rendered a military Israeli outpost.
Every other action Qatar does that is not directly related to its security, is simply a cover up and a diversion.
My soccer fanatic cousins wear Barcelona jerseys. Curiously enough one of the sponsors on the jersey is Qatari Foundation. I have seen other, newer jerseys with Qatar Airlines. If it quacks like a corporation, and walks like a corporation….
Changing topics somewhat, I know that Gordon Duff is persona non grata amongst the commentators. Here is his attempt to pin pindo policy on McCain. I think– thanks to you all– that it goes deeper than this, but if anyone is willing, please respond. Thanks
Never mind about Duff and McCain, though it does seem that McCain was born for the role of villian– a scapegoat to divert attention. That whole Qatari angle reminds me of Spectre. For what it’s worth, the ground work was likely laid by the Dulles’ to usher in the “American Century” which is a moniker for the global rape by corporations.
Another interesting link about Spectre err Qatar
Thierry Meyssan recently wrote Qatar is Exxon.
Therefore Exxon has the immunity of a corporate entity plus a vote at the UN. It has military power (jihadi proxies) which it uses to seize resources in Syria, Iraq and even those of France in Chad.
Recall the visit of Exxon’s CEO to Russia to sign a 600 million dollar deal to develop Arctic oil.
The neocons howled and Congress made a fuss but Exxon did as it pleased, only later suspending the project due to extremely low oil prices.
If Russia wants to develop its Arctic resources, apparently, it needs access to technology controlled by a private entity.
Our geopolitical models are badly out of date. Corporate power must be destroyed but despite libertarian pie in the sky, it can only be done by nation states like Russia — yet, as we see, Russia needs these same corporate behemoths to develop its economy.
Russia must be pragmatic. It must not overreact to NATO provocations or it risks losing access to important technologies and opportunities for development. This is the long game they’re playing and it will frustrate us until we have our own boots on the ground capable of seizing back control of our governments.
The filthy rich outposts of the GCC are major sponsors of European football (soccer for Americans) You have Qatar being the primary sponsor of the most famous club today, FC Barcelona. The UAE are now the primary sponsors of Real Madrid, the “eternal rival” of FC Barcelona. The Emiratis are also full owners of Manchester City, a club that was mediocre for decades until they splashed untold billions into it (that is not a typo) Arsenal football club (the most popular football club in London) are sponsored by the Emirates again, even their stadium is called “Emirates”. Emirates are also sponsoring AC Milan, the most successful Italian club that has fallen on hard times recently. The Qataris, who despite all their connections to the US, UK, Israel and Turkey, they are more invested in France (just take a look at their investment portfolio) also own PSG, now the best French football club.
Of course, the money handed to football clubs (that are followed around the world with religious fervor) is a hybrid of vanity, avarice and also an attempt at soft power from the GCC countries. But it is only the tip of the iceberg. US and EU corporations receive vast amounts of money for deals with the GCC countries. Juan Carlos, the former king of Spain, was best buddies with the Saudis who had massive building contracts with Spanish construction companies. And this just goes on and on ad infinitum.
Without the lucrative relationship between the GCC and the glorious West, both the EU and the US would a hell of a lot poorer as well as far more politically unstable.
The true source of global evil is to be found in Tel-A-Viv. Everything else is secondary.
The question is who will “bell the cat”?
Oh, the Israelis are playing everyone and when push comes to shove it is Washington not Moscow who pays their bills. Now if the Qataris blew up the Russian jet, did someone in the Israeli intelligence community know? or was it a Blackwater arranged job? It is good to have two Praetorian guards because just one leave no alternatives just in case.. This kind of information never has internet links to quote though. The evil in the mid East is very cold and calculating–never mind the buffoons that a more public arm like the State Dept. puts forth to represent it like this Kirby idiot or a harder to disregard, more intelligent shill like Remnick ( buddy with McFaul) of the New Yorker magazine.
Thank you Ghassan Kadi.
I think you have got it in a nutshell.
Qatar is a corporation – a very, very rich one. They can afford to buy anything because they can’t fight. They are the most spoilt country in the world. Bribery is an everyday occurence. As you say they have to hire millions to come to their country to do everything. They have absolutely zero respect for the ex pats too and can even decide if an expat can leave their little extension of land/corporation.
They think they are invincible because of who backs them……and their affiliations. Of course a company like that has no respect for all the ancient cultures its terrorists are slowly destroying bit by bit – it has unfortunately taken on some big powerful enemies……
Turkish-Russian relations are locked in a deepening dispute with no end in sight, as efforts for reconciliation hit the reality of stark differences on both sides, after Turkish air forces shot down a Russian warplane in late November.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan planned for Tuesday in St. Petersburg was cancelled.
http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_dispute-continues-to-simmer-as-planned-putin-erdogan-summit-in-russia-cancelled_406931.html
Thug Life Turkey: Witch Hunt not just Journalists
Former Chief of General Staff retired Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, who issued an e-memorandum in 2007 during the parliamentary election of the Turkish president to demand the election of a president who respected Turkey’s secular traditions, gave a statement to police in his home on Monday as part of an investigation into the memorandum, which was widely condemned as an attempt by the military to intervene in politics.
http://www.todayszaman.com/national_ex-military-chief-buyukanit-testifies-over-e-memorandum_406984.html
thank you for your article.
thanks for confirming my preconception. ..just how could they have a sense of nationhood not having existed as geographical and political entity prior than 1930ies.
p.s. i am yet to hear about a qatarian national dish or music. ..or, read a book translated from qatarian…it would be interesting.
I spent 6 long years of my life in that rat hole. The Qataris are a mongrel, arrogant, vile race of lazy, fat, good for nothing towel heads. Most of them are happily fated to die of diabetes. To my dying day, I fervently hope that the Iranians or Russians (or both) bomb the place back to the miserable little sand heap it always was.
“A tribe is perhaps a good description of Qatar, but the word ‘company’ hits the nail on the head.’
And Qatar is merely a proxy of the ultimate Tribe, if you will–the same Tribe that believes they are God’s Chosen People, and everyone else is … goyim.
Terrorism, corrupt quisling regimes & israel. What’s not to like?
@Is the proposed Turkish base in Qatar going to be a disguised Israeli base? This is not a far-fetched speculation.
Not at all. We know it directly from Bibi:
“Netanyahu envisions ‘three more Israels’ in Mideast, N. Africa”, by By Gil Ronen, First Publish: 11/11/2015 in Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203220#.Vm9qSb86FBv
“In a somewhat cryptic remark in an interview hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu raised the imaginary possibility of the establishment of two or three more “Israels” throughout the Middle East and North Africa, which he said would be located in or near present-day Libya, Afghanistan and Yemen….
Netanyahu laid out three things that need to be done – presumably by the US and the West – which he said he had discussed earlier in the day with President Barack Obama.
The first of these, he said, is to “keep Iran’s feet to the fire and make sure it doesn’t violate the deal.”
The second thing, he continued, is to prevent Iran’s conventional aggression…o this end – the US needs to support its allies and “the most important ally, the most important countervailing force for Iran is the state of Israel. Support Israel!”
This was the point at which he laid out the “additional Israels” scenario. “The president and I discussed today an MOU, a memorandum of understanding for American military support for Israel for the next ten years,” he said.This was the point at which he laid out the “additional Israels” scenario. “The president and I discussed today an MOU, a memorandum of understanding for American military support for Israel for the next ten years,” he said…
At the 33:00 minute mark, he then asked his audience: “Imagine a Middle East without Israel. What do you think would happen in our immediate vicinity? I’m the foreign minister so I have to be diplomatic,” he answered. Netanyahu is currently also acting foreign minister.
“I’ll leave it to your imagination. Now imagine a Middle East with three Israels: one in Afghanistan, one in Libya, one near Yemen. It’ll be a far different situation. The support for Israel that I’m talking about. Well – the United States supports Israel to the tune of 3 billion a year.
The third thing that needs to be done against the Iranian threat, he said, is to bring down its global terror network.”
So the first step is made. Qatar is “close to Afghanistan”. Will see how it would go with Yemen (BTW, the former Jewish Himyarite Kingdom).
Netanyahu was mum about the fourth Israel…in Ukraine (Khazaria). But every one knew:
“Dnepropetrovsk could be renamed – Jerusalem-on-the-Dnieper-(I Mean, You Knew It Was Coming, Right?)
“German journalists from Deutschlandradio published an article titled “Dnepropetrovsk will become Jerusalem”. Oleg Rostovtsev, a spokesman for the Jewish community, which has 50 000 parishioners, supports the renaming of Dnepropetrovsk to Jerusalem-on-the-Dnieper:
“Jerusalem for residents of Dnepropetrovsk is a city of peace, not conflict. Many of us have already visited Jerusalem, worshiped the holy places, came back and said: here it’s almost the same – next to the synagogue stands a mosque, and nearby there are churches and monasteries. We also respect our different traditions”.
@https://dublinsmickdotcom.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/dnepropetrovsk-could-be-renamed-jerusalem-on-the-dnieper-i-mean-you-knew-it-was-coming-right/
this is sick – Israel is a corporation…nothing but a corporation.
Rather a Mafia.
“According to Israel’s former Police Commissioner David Cohen, Israeli crime organizations had penetrated the formal economic sector and local governments, and “equipped themselves with large quantities of combat means explosives and arms”
There is an alliance between Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik (Jewish-American organized crime), Israeli Mafia (mostly Maghrebi and Arab Jews) and the ex-Soviet organized crime (mostly Ukrainian and Russian Jews migrated to Israel but Georgian Jewish immigrants as well). It has a universal reach.
wow what a powerful article..thanks so much Ghassan and Intibah…really interesting information about the Middle East.
Thanks Ghassan.. As usual, correct historical background and convincing analysis..
Putin and President Medvedev keep saying to Washington is:
You are crossing our Red Lines!
And Washington said, and continues to say,
‘You don’t have any red lines.
We have red lines and we can have all the bases we want around your borders, but you can’t have bases in Canada , Mexico, Armenia, Syria, Vietnam…you cannot even have trade allies.
Your red lines don’t exist.’
A very enlightening article – thanks Ghassan.
News today that Saudi, having offered a ceasefire to Yemen, are now heading an anti-ISIS coalition to Syraq:
https://www.rt.com/news/325929-islamic-coalition-terrorism-saudi/
The list of participating countries is interesting – no Europeans or US. Most are ‘small fry’ as far as military clout is concerned. But nation-state political status offers useful cover for more mercenaries deployed to the region by the oil cartels.
Quatar is among them.
As an Egyptian man once put it to me: Qatar is just a guy in tent sitting on a pile of money.
Qatar is an English colony and she does want the English parasites tell her to do.
Nothing less,nothing more.
As Is Saudi Arabia a British outpost so is Qatar.
That is why england needs to besotted not the peripheral entities.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940924001281
Also, in March, top Military Aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said agents of some 17 foreign spy agencies have sought to foment dissent and unrest in Iran’s oil-rich Southwestern province of Khuzestan.
General Rahim Safavi said that “17 regional and trans-regional intelligence services affiliated to the Arab and western states” are running operations “in support of ethnic separatist groups to sow discord among the local people” in Khuzestan.
He said “the Arab and European secret services are supporting separatist groups with financial and political backups” to stir unrest through fomenting sectarian strife in the bordering province.
Still the long-term plan in effect since Iran was lost to the neocons in 1979.
Note similarity to setting up an oil-rich Kurdistan carved out of Syria/ Iraq.
The obvious intent of Bush’s 2003 Iraq invasion was to next take this Khuzestan area, right next door.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/images/iran-map2.jpg
A feeling and an idea. The first is interest in that point of view : Qatar is a company not a state. One strong argument to that is the fact of 10 foreigners are needed to ensure the living of 1 qatari. This brings me to an idea.
Globalization is much about moving populations. From that viewpoint, this country is very much globalised. Its owners care a lot about their security. They do not worry about a 91 % population of foreigners. They must be damn easy to deal with them. It must be a bunch of disorganized people. They are no threat. Therefore, I transpose that situation in Europe.
A massive arrival of migrant that won’t be integrated in the society due to the PC ideology, destruction of family ties, denial of every form of patriotism outside Israel’s and USA, enforcement of weird security laws, debilitating education end in something analogous to the qatari society and the population is foreign to its very homeland.