Qatar Becomes a Political Football in Middle East Game of Thrones
Foreign Affairs
Struan Stevenson
Qatar — Iran’s cheerleader in the Middle East — is facing a final countdown to financial and economic sanctions and travel bans that will jeopardise its future and that of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The core of the dispute is Qatar’s alleged support for terrorist groups and its close relationship with Iran, regarded as the main source of instability in the region.
At a press conference in the House of Commons in March, I introduced a study showing how Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been meddling in the affairs of 14 Muslim countries in the Middle East, ranging from low-level spying and terrorist operations to full-scale military campaigns. Many of those countries are now venting their anger on Qatar.
Prepared by the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) and the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA), the study established that the IRGC is directly involved in Iran’s ongoing infiltration of Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, where the IRGC has considerable military presence. In the summer of 2016, for example, there were almost 70,000 fighters in Iranian proxy forces on the ground in Syria, propping up Bashar al-Assad’s regime and prolonging the civil war.
In Iraq, Iran has allegedly exploited the IRGC-led campaign against Daesh to carry out a genocidal expulsion of Sunnis living in areas essential to the creation of a Shia Crescent from Tehran to Beirut. Ancient Iraqi Sunni cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul have been laid to waste, with tens of thousands of Sunnis displaced or slaughtered.
Our report also outlined the Iranian regime’s backing for the Houthi rebels in Yemen — now engaged in a ferocious war against a Saudi-led Arab coalition attempting to restore the legitimate government — and terrorist Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, in addition to IRGC meddling in Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.
Countries across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt, have lost patience with Qatar, closing land, sea and air borders and demanding changes. Qatar and Iran share ownership of the world’s largest gas field, the South Pars/North Dome Gas Condensate Field. Proceeds from their share of this vast resource have catapulted Qatar, with a population of only 2.5 million, to become the world’s third richest country based on GDP per capita. Despite its wealth, Qatar’s relationship with Tehran is of grave concern to its Arab neighbours. It cannot have it both ways.
Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. The Qatar royal family own great swathes of London, including Harrods and part of Heathrow. Critics claim that profits from these and other international investments are routinely re-cycled into supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations, all of whom regard Tehran as their Godfather of Islamic fundamentalism.
Besides moderating the Arabic stream of al-Jazeera, seen as a mouthpiece for extremists, the anti-Qatar coalition has demanded that Qatar stop providing support for terrorists and interfering in Egypt, that it immediately expels the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other terrorists and, above all, that it severs close ties with Iran.
Mr Trump’s first foreign visit as President was to Riyadh in May. Addressing 55 leaders from Arab and Islamic nations, he described Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and called for action. Within days, a coalition of countries announced a diplomatic and trade embargo against Qatar until it fell into line. With 40% of its food imported from Saudi Arabia, the closure of their only land border posed immediate problems for the small Gulf State.
It is up to Qatar and its beleaguered Emir al-Thani to decide whether they can face off the demands of their neighbours with only the backing of Turkey, Iran and its IRGC, or whether they will distance themselves from extremist groups and sever ties with Iran.
Qatar is set to play host to the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The likelihood of this international festival of football taking place in a quarantined country embroiled in an international political controversy, accused of harbouring terrorists and approving of Iran’s aggressive expansionism, is highly unlikely.
A small country on the periphery of the Gulf, it would be a grave mistake for Qatar to tie its future to Iran. The Iranian regime is unstable and liable to collapse in the near future and, even if the mullahs cling to power for a little longer, experience shows that Iran is not loyal to its friends unless they become its puppets. This is a dangerous deadlock and Qatar should pull itself out while it still can.
Struan Stevenson is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999–2014), president of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009–14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004–14). He is an award-winning author and international lecturer on the Middle East.
