and Egypt, and concur with all future updates of this list,” “shut down … all news outlets directly and indirectly funded by Qatar,” “cease contact with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain,” “pay reparations” to Saudi Arabia and its allies in an amount to be determined, and “align Qatar’s military, political, social and economic policies with the other Gulf and Arab countries … per [a prior] agreement reached with Saudi Arabia.”199 In short, MBS demands that Qatar cede most of its sovereignty to him and his co-conspirators, with the Qataris’ journalistic, military, diplomatic, geopolitical, cultural, and economic decisions being brought forcefully into line by expansive edicts from Riyadh. This illustrates the conclusions of a 2017 Associated Press article republished in top Israeli media outlet Haaretz, which observes that “governments across the [Middle East] region routinely cite terrorism as justification to clamp down on political opposition and rights activists. Some groups Qatar has backed—such as the Muslim Brotherhood—are seen by many as a legitimate political force. Others, including some hardline Sunni rebel factions in Syria, are not that different ideologically from groups that Saudi Arabia backs there.”200 That the United States has not historically shared MBS and his allies’ professed concerns about Qatar is underscored by the fact that America “continues to sell Qatar billions in weapons,” the two media outlets note.201 Their finding that Qatari money has at times “indirectly” supported Islamist militant groups—as a result of chaos on the ground in sectarian conflicts in the region—echoes a similar finding in February 2019 by CNN, which reports that both MBS and MBZ have permitted American weapons sold to them by the Trump administration to “ma[k]e their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the [Saudi-Emirati] coalition … exposing some of America’s sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of U.S. troops.”202
The Associated Press and Haaretz regard some of the demands by the Saudi-led axis as nonsensical. For instance, “Saudi Arabia has … accused Qatar of backing Iranian-allied rebels in Yemen, known as Houthis. However, Qatar was a member of a Saudi-led coalition bombing the Houthis in Yemen. Experts say there is no evidence to support the [Saudi] claims.”203
Nevertheless, not only does Trump immediately voice his support of MBS’s blockade, but he “appear[s] to take credit” for it, per the Guardian, tweeting, “During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar—look! So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to horror of terrorism!”204 According to the Guardian, “The president’s remarks on Tuesday will come as a shock to Qatar,” as the Gulf nation “regarded itself as an ally of the United States and is home to 10,000 U.S. troops, and will delight Saudi Arabia, which until recently had been fighting off claims in Washington that Riyadh was the chief sponsor of terrorism.”205 The British media outlet notes that Trump’s position “runs counter to the tone of other administration officials calling for compromise and reconciliation,” including Rex Tillerson, who immediately after the blockade began “called for calm.”206
In its coverage of the blockade, the Guardian reports that one reason Trump’s position shocks even officials in his own administration is that Qatar “spent more than $1 billion building [the U.S. base there] and [it] has been used to stage attacks against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.”207
Qatar’s response to the blockade is to suggest that its enemies have conspired to create a “rift with the United States and its allies.”208 As the Guardian reports at the time, Qatar “feels it is the victim of an orchestrated and well-planned operation designed to end its independent foreign policy.”209 Even more troubling is a CNN report revealing that American officials believe it is Russia that has orchestrated the blockade crisis by using hackers to plant fake news on the Qataris’ state-run television channel.210 Per the CNN report, “intelligence gathered by the U.S. security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago … The alleged involvement of Russian hackers intensifies concerns by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russia continues to try some of the same cyber-hacking measures on U.S. allies that intelligence agencies believe it used to