Doha’s role is losing ground in favor of Riyadh in the Middle East

The Egyptian army’s decision to isolate the Islamic President Mohamed Morsi, and to elect one who is close to Saudi Arabia as a president of the Syrian opposition, Ahmad Assi Jarba, as well as the resignation of the President of the interim Syrian government Ghassan Hito who belong to Qatar, all this lead to limiting Doha’s ambitions. 

The Kuwaiti analyst Ayed Al-Manna told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that “Qatar tried to have a leading role in the region, but it went far in this when it publicly adopted the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria and in other countries of the Arab Spring”. 

Jonathan Eyal, head of the International Relations Department at the “Royal United Services Institute” in Britain has the same point of view as well.  

The (National) UAE newspaper quoted him as saying on Tuesday that “Qatar’s Middle East diplomacy has receded today, for it did not succeed in Libya as it failed in Syria and is experiencing a collapse in Egypt”. 

Al-Manna added that the Qataris- having realized the damage caused by their policy- “worked to reduce the level of their motivation”, which has been limited due to changing the top of the pyramid of power when Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani suddenly handed over power in favor of his son, Sheikh Tamim, and retired the engineer of the diplomacy of tiny emirate, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani.  

He continued saying, “Therefore, Saudi Arabia the historical ally to the United States in the region has restored its previous role”. 

What really indicates this strong return is the announcement made by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday regarding sending aid to Egypt that worth five billion and three billion dollars, respectively. Also, the two said countries were the first to congratulate the temporary Egyptian President Adli Mansour after isolating Mohamed Morsi. 

For his part, the director of the Gulf Research Center Abdulaziz Sager told AFP that Saudi Arabia is “Moving in the direction of ensuring stability in the countries of the Arab Spring, regardless of the ideological interests. The Kingdom supported the Brotherhood Egypt, but the failure of the Brotherhood to achieve stability and to manage the states wisely led the Kingdom to reconsider its support for the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood”.  

Yet, the researcher overlooked the significance of the rivalry taking place between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are seeking to extend their influence in the countries of the Arab Spring, and to prevent any internal protest movements in their countries.  

Sager continued that “The Saudi-Qatari understandings still exist and that there is no case of conflict between the two sides, but there are, without a doubt, only differences in visions”. 
 
So as to prove the presence of those understandings, he pointed out that “Riyadh is the first capital that has been notified about the plan of change in Qatar in full detail before nearly six months of its occurrence. Riyadh’s position was welcoming and supporting the decision of the royal family in Qatar”. 

The relations were tense for a long time and/or there have been insubstantial trust between the two countries, which adopt two different types of political Islam, which emerged obviously powerfully with the protests witnessed by the Arab world. 

Qatar supports the parties arising from the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood or those that revolve in their space, but their experience lasted a short period of time in spite of the media momentum being provided to them by the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel. 

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia supports the Salafist movements, which mostly focus on behaviors and abide by the rules of Islam, such as imposing the veil (Hijab) and preventing mixing between sexual categories.  

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz announced on Tuesday evening that the Kingdom “will never accept” to support parties that do not seek but only “conflict” or to let extremists working for their own interests to exploit Islam. 

He added that “Islam rejects sedition under the name of a movement here or there, or under the name of parties that are similarly moving in the midst of their darkness (...) and have lost their way. “The Kingdom thus declares that it will not allow at all and in any case anyone in its country to follow or to belong to political parties for which Allah has sent down no authority, that lead only to conflict and failure”.

However, the analysts and former Bahraini Minister Ali Fakhro said that “The political future of the region would not be determined by Qatar or Saudi Arabia, but by the Arab peoples (…) that will not accept the mistakes of 14 centuries of time, referring to the prevailing interpretations of the principles of Islam.