The ambassador wrote an article about the Gulf crisis after a year since its outbreak:

A year has passed since a sudden, overwhelming and shocking decision for all, when Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have broken diplomatic relations with our country under the pretext of "our support to terrorism" in the worst event in the region in years. We are facing, therefore, a campaign of fabrications and lies, with the aim of imposing their commandments and pressuring our leaders to renounce their national decision.

The background of the crisis is based on the piracy that has affected the Qatar News Agency by one of the four siege countries, and after the media of those countries began to spread news that It contains false information attributed to the Amir, and then these countries decided to boycott the State of Qatar and to impose an air and maritime and land blockade on it. Our authorities have been surprised by these decisions, based on accusations and lies, mainly aimed at putting pressure on Doha and trying to undermine it and obstruct its path. However, we prefer to take a peaceful and civilized approach, and tried on several occasions to clarify the issue of piracy and fabricated information, but the siege states refused to communicate with us and listen to our explanations, in order to discredit and delegitimize our state, even reaching the threats of producing a regime change in Doha. But a year after this reckless decision led by our neighbors, we can now ensure that the result was the opposite of what they expected, as these events increased the people's confidence in the leadership of Qatar, and united the Qataris. They must realize that their efforts to change the regime have been a great motivation for our resistance. On the other hand, the insistence of these countries on the surrender of Qatar to their demands is a challenge to our sovereignty and, therefore, to the legitimacy of the ruling family.

Trump's staggering position of crisis:

One of the most influential factors to feed this crisis is the position of US President Donald Trump. The hostile embargo campaign began a few days after his visit to Saudi Arabia and the signing of large contracts that exceeded $ 400 billion for the next 10 years. This was interpreted as giving the green light to the Gulf States and Egypt to have free hands to attack Qatar with the measures of siege and suffocation, to later redraw the political map of the region and return to the pre-2011 stage under the title of resistance to terrorism and face the Iranian project and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But Trump's position at the start of the crisis was incompatible with the position of the United States' decision-making institutions in the field of foreign policy (the White House and the Pentagon), as well as the position of the former Foreign Minister Rex Tillerson, who has always been a defender of Qatar and was in favor of the option to resolve crisis as soon as possible.

In relation to the Pentagon, the United States Army is trying that in the Gulf area, regardless of the statements of Donald Trump (its supreme commander) to avoid entering into a military conflict that could cost a lot, which may be one of the reasons why the White House and the Pentagon make statements different from what Trump said about Qatar during the early stages of the crisis.

The Pentagon said clearly days after the crisis erupted, that the Ubeid air base, which is the base of the front of the US Air Force Central Command, that "all operations and inspection flights continue as planned." It should be noted that nearly 10,000 US soldiers are stationed there.

Afterwards, the comments of Trump were made public, which mainly claimed responsibility for the extraordinary actions against Qatar, during his speech in Riyadh in front of 50 Arab and Muslim leaders. Then a second Pentagon statement came, reiterating the praise for Qatar for hosting US troops.

Europe joined the Pentagon, or at least the continent's most important foreign minister, the German Ziegmar Gabriel, who said "It seems that Qatar will be almost completely isolated" and added "The introduction of Trump's approach in dealing with the region is very dangerous in a region that is already experiencing crisis. "

However, shortly after, Trump telephoned the Emir of Qatar to offer mediation. Making this call 24 hours after his comment on twitter, it seems that the army message has arrived.

It should be noted that after the submission of the 13 demands of the siege countries, which then became six principles, under the pretext that Qatar is hosts and supports terrorism, although everyone attests that Qatar is very interested in combating terrorism In all its forms, the Pentagon praised shortly after June 5, the "Permanent Commitment of Qatar to regional security".

 

 

The contradictory demands with the policy of the countries of the siege:

One of the most outstanding arguments of these countries against the State of Qatar is its support for the Muslim Brotherhood. The latter, who claim to classify them as a terrorist organization, were housed by Saudi Arabia in the context of their struggle against Jamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s and provided them with all forms of support. How did what was allowed yesterday become prohibited today?

On the other hand, these countries that intend to address extremism today, did not stop supporting extreme groups with a sign of religious backwardness, such as the Salafist and Wahhabi groups that they were, and continue to provide the intellectual ground for terrorism and religious violence.

As for the relationship with Tehran, as they demanded the condemnation of Qatar because of it, it is enough to see the volume of trade between the UAE and Iran, which is the highest among the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), estimated at about 40 billion dollars, and represents more than 80% of the trade volume of the GCC countries with Iran.

They want us to break our relations with Iran, the neighboring country that has not harmed us at all, and it is the country that has rushed to help us since the crisis broke out and opened its air space. "Our relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are ancient, historical and close and we want to strengthen these relations more than ever," said the Emir of the State of Qatar during his meeting with President Rohani.

All this confirms that this organized campaign has as a backdrop Qatar's support for democracy projects, the so-called "Arab Spring" in the region, which explains the demand to close the Al-Jazeera channel, that represented the first window of free media in the Arab world.

The impact of the crisis on humanitarian aspects and effect on Human Rights:

The Gulf crisis has had many negative impacts on the State of Qatar and the countries throughout the Gulf, in the political, economic and social aspects, and especially in the humanitarian aspects, which were the most affected by this crisis, which started a year ago. This crisis affected the lives of the Gulf people and the residents of this region in all what is related to health, education, professional, and social aspects. What is obvious, this crisis has come to legitimize violations of human rights, a fact that has been exposed and visible to everyone.

The measures taken by the four countries of the siege were cruel and inhumane. They resorted to unexpected surprise, since they were made with the intention of frightening the government and the people of Qatar, which caused a terrible psychological impact at the beginning of the crisis.

The report of the technical mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights office on the repercussions of the current Gulf crisis on human rights, issued in Geneva in December 2017, includes the root causes of the crisis of the Gulf and the crisis posed by it in terms of restrictions on the right to freedom of movement and communication.

The report addressed family dispersion, issues related to citizenship and residency, the impact on economic rights, the right to property, the impact on the right to health and education and long-term human rights. It also referred to the hate speech and incitement against the Qataris in the official media of the siege countries.

The countries of the siege continue to persist in the violations of human rights, and have not left a guaranteed right that has not been flagrantly violated against international conventions and charters, which have also affected the rights of religious practices, such as prohibiting the Qatari citizens to make the pilgrimage (Hajj) during the past year, putting administrative obstacles to it.

The Doha response, which attaches great importance to human rights and the need to respect them, came quickly. The National Human Rights Commission has taken great measures to combat these violations in all international forums and urged the competent organizations to fulfill their international and moral responsibilities, and urged all countries to continue to fulfill their international role and duty in this crisis through its human rights mechanisms, together with international organizations to condemn these violations and exert pressure to put an end to them.

Many countries, human rights organizations and journalists' unions have also reacted strongly to the violations of the blockade imposed on Qatar. The best proof of this is the great support of the Arab and Western media and the main press organizations condemning the demands of the closure of Qatar's satellite channels, considered a violation of freedom of opinion and expression.

The sudden decision of the siege has affected the most important principles of human rights, which led to the massive support of many countries to the State of Qatar; in addition to their demand to the four countries of the siege to resort to wisdom to calm the spirits and to reverse their arbitrary decision, which does not harm the State of Qatar alone, but constitutes a damage and a huge danger to the stability of the Gulf states and the region as a whole.

The siege also had a significant negative impact on a number of aspects of human rights, affecting the following categories:

• Qatari citizens residing in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, who are forced to leave these countries immediately, leaving behind their families, jobs and property, or those who have been forced not to complete their studies by force.

• The citizens of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain who reside in Qatar (including those who marry Qatari nationals) who have been forced to return to their countries of origin and are helpless, far from their families and not allowed to have their means of subsistence and their properties.

• The expatriate workers and their families, who constitute the majority of the population in Qatar, as some lost their jobs and others faced increasing economic pressure.

• The entire population of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, due to the restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement to and from their countries and the damage to their cultural, social, economic and civil rights.

The position of the European Union, led by Germany, France and Great Britain, which are the countries that pay close attention to human rights issues, was very clear from the beginning. As was the case of other countries such as Russia, Pakistan and Turkey, this last country that joined Qatar since the outbreak of the crisis to provide political and military support, in addition to the positions of Arab countries, such as Oman, Morocco, Tunisia , Sudan, Kuwait, which made great efforts to act as a mediator in the crisis, an initiative that put it in an uncomfortable position facing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has interpreted this position as a declaration of war and demanded Kuwait to be with them and abandon its mediation in the crisis. It is worth mentioning that the position of the State of Kuwait was part of its commitment to the unity of the Gulf House, the same position as Qatar. In this regard, it should be noted that one of the important principles defended by the Gulf Cooperation Council is to preserve the rights of citizens and the protection of the GCC, which were largely affected by the decisions of the siege states to deny the rights of these citizens to communicate with each other. In this regard, we would like to refer to the statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, during his participation in the economic conference in Davos, "We are sorry for the fact that the CCG has become an ineffective organization, after having been the recent example of cohesion and hope for the Arab world. "

Therefore, we can affirm that Qatar has diplomatically surpassed its opponents, and showed the world its interest in peace, and urged the states of the blockade more than once to sit down at the dialogue table to arrive to solutions to the crisis, and that appeal did not have any response from these countries. Economically Qatar also overcame the obstacles caused by this crisis, and soon replaced the vacuum left by the shortage of food and goods imports from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by importing them from other countries, such as Turkey and some other Gulf states. In addition, the blockade has not cast its shadow on the pace of production, and did not negatively affect the economy in general, as Qatar's leadership has worked since the beginning of the crisis with calm and wisdom, and quickly its effect was absorbed . Qatar's leadership has also managed to highlight the enormous capabilities to ensure the normal life of citizens, and to continue their efforts to achieve their goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030, which was an unpleasant surprise for the countries of the siege , who expected the opposite.

In conclusion, it can be said that the current crisis could cause, unless it is paralyzed as quickly as possible, serious humanitarian and spiritual damage to all the citizens of the Gulf States, and will negatively influence its unity and historical relations, and their blood ties and the spirit of interdependence among them, knowing that this crisis has left deep cracks difficult to overcome in the short term. As His Highness the Emir of Qatar said, during his participation in the inaugural session of the Security Conference that took place in Munich, Federal Republic of Germany, the Gulf crisis caused by our neighbors, through their imprudent policies, have undermined the security of the region and has prevented the existence of the unified Gulf policy.

His Highness assured that, despite all this intentional instability, Qatar is the safest and most peaceful country in the world, and that despite all the challenges imposed on us, including the complete land, sea and air blockade, which began on May 5. June of last year, Qatar has managed to find new trade routes. And he added "Qatar joined and came out of this crisis more powerful."

His Highness said, "This unjust blockade shows that countries can use diplomacy and strategic economic planning to counter the threats posed by neighboring countries," he explained. "They want to use small countries as part of their political game and it is necessary that peoples maintain their independence, as is the case of Qatar, which did not want to side with any of the opposing camps.

The most important characteristics of the Gulf crisis today:

After a year of this crisis and the unjust decisions taken by the countries of the blockade against our country, we can refer to the following:

1. These countries continue to pursue hostile policies against the State of Qatar, and all indicates that there are no signs of short-term progress.

2. Saudi Arabia and its allies are betting on the long-term policy of the crisis, adopting the policy of pressure, and believe that Doha is affected in one way or another, and the longer the time, the greater the damage economic at least. However, economic indicators proved the contrary, especially because we have become dependent on our national products and have created a new network of important alliances for our economy in the future. In addition to our economic performance.

3. The insistence of the leaders of these countries to resolve the crisis within the "House of the Gulf" in response to the request of the United States of America, especially the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Rex Tillerson to find a solution as soon as possible, however, they did not offer initiatives in good faith in this regard. All the contrary, they were working to undermine the Gulf Summit and downplay it, in addition to its rejection of the US-Gulf summit, proposed by President Trump.

4. Although we do not believe that this conflict will reach military confrontation, but what is more worrying is that Saudi Arabia and the UAE can continue to reiterate the mistakes made when the Saudi leadership decided to launch a war against Yemen, without having a clear political strategy, based on erroneous hypotheses, with large financial costs, which caused many victims and now it is likely that those two countries are worse in terms of security.

5. If this conflict is prolonged, it will not benefit any of the parties, since that will harm the investment climate for all of our nations, since this will remind investors in unexpected way.

 

Rashid Mairza Al Mulla

Ambassador of the State of Qatar in Cuba