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?
[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.
[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.
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(MEE) — The British government and defence giant BAE Systems have agreed a major new deal to supply Qatar with Eurofighter Typhoon jets, despite fears of regional instability.
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
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.
(GPA) — Yesterday, Geopolitics Alert reported that the Saudi coalition had killed over 80 of their own troops via a series of airstrikes in the Yemeni province of Marib. At first glance, this would look like a “goof” on the Saudis’ behalf. But further information suggests this was a very deliberate act.
(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.
