Gulf Crisis

On Qatar and Gulf Geopolitics

Prefatory Note: The post below in the slightly modified text of an interview by the Tunisian journalist Awatef Ben Ali on behalf of the Qatar newspaper, Al Sharq, August 26, 2018.)
 
 
 
Q 1: From the perspective of international law, is the blockade on the State of Qatar and the 13 demands of the countries of the blockade legal and respecting international sovereignty?
 

Are the 13 Demands to Qatar a ‘Geopolitical Crime’?

[Prefatory Note: the following post is part of an ongoing project assessing the international relations and international law Gulf Crisis that was initiated by a coalition of four countries, issuing a set of 13 demands directed at the government of Qatar. Qatar rejected the demands as contrary to its sovereign rights and international law, and at the same time offered to mediate the dispute. The Gulf Coalition rejected the approach, insisting on Qatar’s compliance, and causing harm to the state of Qatar and those resident in the country by blocking access and abruptly cutting relations.

The Gulf Crisis Reassessed

[Prefatory Note: The dysfunctionality of the Gulf Crisis, pitting a coalition of four countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt against tiny Qatar, is emblematic of the descent into multi-dimensional chaos, conflict, and coercion that afflicts much of the Middle East. Qatar may be tiny, but it is wealthy and has chosen for itself a somewhat independent path, and for this reason has experienced the wrath of the more reactionary forces operative in the region and world.

Turkey’s President Erdogan to visit Qatar next week amid Saudi crisis

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State-owned Saudi television shows animation of Saudi fighters downing a Qatari passenger jet (VIDEO)

While the political and diplomatic dispute between Qatar and its opponents in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE and Egypt appears to have predictably solidified into a medium term ‘cold war in the desert’, the propaganda war continues at full throttle.
READ MORE: COLD WAR IN THE DESERT–How the Qatar crisis is becoming a stalemate

US Intelligence: UAE Hacked Qatar, Sparking Gulf Crisis

United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan listens questions during a meeting with the press in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 11, 2017. (AP/Mindaugas Kulbis)
The UAE was behind a hacking campaign against Doha which sparked a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region, US intelligence sources have said, after false statements attributed to Qatar’s emir were posted on an official news agency website.

“Unacceptable Attack”: UN Outraged Over Saudi Demand to Shut Al Jazeera Down

“The demand … is, in our view, an unacceptable attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion.”

(MEE) — A demand by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations for Qatar to close down its Al Jazeera TV channel is an “unacceptable attack” on the right to freedoms of expression and opinion, the United Nations human rights chief said on Friday.