Fake Saudi Arabia Puts Truth in Qatar’s Hands

Rasa - Early on Wednesday May 24, the website of the Qatar News Agency posted an article that quoted ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Sheikh Tamim as calling Iran an "Islamic power" and seeking closer relations with Tehran.

News ID: 429904

Date: 26 May 2017 - 22:01

RNA - Doha officials blamed hackers and claimed the news posted on Qatar’s state-run news agency was fake. But in Riyadh, authorities were quick to order Saudi Communication and IT Authority as well as authorities in the United Arab Emirates to block Qatari media including Aljazeera for broadcasting these statements.

Saudi satellite channels were quick to repeatedly air the news throughout the day. The story immediately was picked up by other satellite television networks as well. The incident has sparked a regional dispute and revived suspicions that exploded into the open three years ago when several Persian Gulf Arab states pulled their ambassadors from Qatar over similar worries about its politics.

While Saudi and UAE governments are busy with filtering Qatar's news outlets, it is the belief of many Saudi news channels, including Alriyadh newspaper that, quote, “It is impossible to hack the Qatar News Agency. Audiences are too wise to believe the purported hacking. Doha claims that this is fake news, and that hackers broke into the website of Qatari state-run news agency and published a fake story quoting the ruling emir making Iran comments. But his comments were also posted by several other Qatari news agencies, meaning that this is not fake news.”

Then if true, and if it is proved that the Qatar News Agency was never “hacked with fake positive story about Iran”, it will be shown once again that the Ruling Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Sheikh Tamim, is a pragmatist leader, in particular, when it comes to his pragmatic statements about Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

The story proves more than anything else that Qatar is not living in an imaginary universe. The country has no intention to accept Saudi Arabia’s self-declared regional hegemony. It sees itself as an independent regional player – with no Saudi strings attached.

Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to purchase American arms worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In the words of arms dealer Donald Trump who signed the agreement during a recent trip to Riyadh, “This is going to make America rich.” This is also going to make Saudi Arabia “big” – at least that’s what they imagine. In between, however, Qatar is unhappy. The regional Arab state is not prepared to be a loser. It has no intention to forgo its relations with Iran, much less pay the price for Saudi-American military adventures in the Middle East.

By posting positive news about Iran, Qatari broadcasters and news channels made it clear that Qatar is an independent state; that its leader calls Hamas "the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," as well as saying Qatar has "strong relations with Iran.” As they reported, "Iran represents a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it. It is a big power in the stabilization of the region."

Also as reported by numerous Saudi-Qatari press outlets like Al Watan and Alriyadh, “Emir Sheikh Tamim sees no reason for hostility with Tehran or the anti-Iran policies stated in Riyadh summit. He rejects anti-Iran claims and policies US president and Saudi leaders made in the Arabic Islamic American Summit on Sunday, and believes that this has undermined the summit’s international integrity and.” Attainments.”

The Qatari Emir does not see any good reason why his country should ignore the lucrative economic and political interests of ties with post-nuclear deal Iran for the sake of nothing, but endangered security in the region. The Emir knows pretty well that such statements are only meant to give Riyadh more weight to lead a number of small Arab states, but there is nothing in that for his country. On the opposite, such warmongering policies and hostile remarks intensify tensions across the Persian Gulf and would increase the risk ratio for foreign and domestic trade and investment. Investment never goes to risky lands where security indices are low. In the meantime, Doha could earn a lot from trade and cooperation with Iran. The two states' cooperation with Russia as the world's major gas exporters several years ago initiated a path that could help all suppliers earn more from their energy sector. Hostility towards a nation that shares the world's largest gas field with you in the Persian Gulf would never serve your country's market. In the meantime, Qatar knows that foreign and domestic contractors would fast rush to review their contracts on the country's development plans once tensions go high.

Hence, Doha is thinking why it should sustain so much damage that could amount to potentially hundreds of billions of dollars even without actual war and without even a single bullet shot just for the sake of the boastful remarks made by Riyadh that only seeks to tarnish the ties between Iran and other Arab states at a time when it is unable to earn something from the Iranian market and at a time of Riyadh's regional rivalry with Iran.

Doha is smart enough to know that accompanying the Saudis that have proved to be an unpredictable neighbor and uneasy to handle and imagine themselves as the big brother of Persian Gulf Arab states, including Qatar, would bring them nothing but great damage both in area of politics and economy, while the benefits are all for the US and some possible meager gains for Riyadh. But at the same time, avoiding such efforts to undermine ties with Iran would yield much profits for them. The Qatari Emir has apparently pondered the situation of Oman and come to realize that there is much to earn from a similar status, where it would have the freedom and opportunity to lead as an independent state that could talk to both sides of the isle at times of tensions between Iran and the US or Iran and the Saudi-led front.

Maybe that's why the Saudi gazette, Okaz, wrote, “The comments made by the Qatari emir have divided the Arab world. He sees Hezbollah as a resistance party; Iran as an Islamic country with unquestionable regional position and power; and is against any tensions with Tehran.”

Taken together, the Saudi, Emirati, and even Qatari authorities are free to assert that the statements made by the Qatari Emir and posted on Qatari-Saudi news channels have no basis whatsoever. The fact remains that they are still unable to explain how Sheikh Tamim’s remarks made it on state television? They are also powerless to explain why Tehran keeps calling for greater unity among Muslims in the region at a time when Saudi-Emirati shenanigans, scaremongering, provocations, and blatant violations of International Law continue willfully apace?

Yet again, it's good to hear such smart statements in the region every now and then. There will be much more for Qatar to earn if it draws a line of distance from the Saudi policies.

847/940