Qatar has always sided with groups and organizations that work against each other, hoping to find a role for itself to play amidst the chaos created by warring factions.
The oil-rich Gulf monarchy had a part to play in collapsing Arab administration during the illusive Arab Spring, turning the already troubled Middle East into battleground with new warzones emerging everyday. The following is an outline of Qatar’s contradictory policies, false statements, and broken promises.
1- Doha hosts 100 Talibani leaders with their families and allows them to move freely within the country borders. Southwest of Doha, Al Udeid Air Base has nine thousand US military personnel and tens of fighter jets bombing Taliban in Afghanistan.
2- Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by several European countries, including Britain. So, naturally, Qatar built a villa for Hamas’ head Khaled Mashaal next to the British Embassy.
3- Qatar claimed to be against the Israeli project in the region and that it will not normalize relations with the Jewish state. Yet, Qatar had an Israeli Trade Office until 2008 and exports gas to Israel.
4- Qatar maintained that it supports Fatah as the main representative of the Palestinian case internationally while exhorting the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas to topple the regime in Gaza and take control of the strip.
5- Asserted working to uphold interests of GCC states but agreed with Israel to build a dairy factory that will compete fiercely with Saudi and Emirati products.
6- Promoted the idea that it opposes the practices of the lebanese Hezbollah militias, however, since the Israeli war on southern Lebanon in 2006, Qatar showered Hezbollah with money and equipment. Former Qatar emir had also visited the paramilitary group’s HQ after the war was over in 2010. And according to documents, Qatar helped Hezbollah in storming Beirut in 2008.
7- Announced on several occasions that it’s against that Iranian policies in the region, nonetheless the micro-state has strong economic and political relations with Iran. An an Iranian military base in Qatar is in the making.
8- Proclaimed fighting terror in the region and provides a safe haven for hundreds of terrorists, refusing to extradite them because they are “from the opposition and are persecuted by their governments.”
9- Facilitated US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and received Saddam Hussein family, Al Jazeera peddled the rhetoric that the they were misjudged.
10- Signed a UN agreement prohibiting funding terror groups or paying them ransoms. Paid a ransom on $1 billion to an Iraqi terrorist group to release 26 kidnapped persons, 24 of whom are Qataris with a few royals among them.
