Dehai

Behind the Scenes at the Saudi-Qatari Pissing Contest

Saudi Arabia, with the bellicose support of President Trump, has
launched a diplomatic and partial economic offensive against the
ridiculously small state of Qatar and is dragging its allies, the
United Arab Emirates in particular, into a potential major headache.

You see the de facto capital of the Emirates is Abu Dhabi which uses
Qatari natural gas to generate half of its electricity via the
Qatar-Abu Dhabi-Oman pipeline. So if Qatar really felt threatened it
would pull the plug, and at least for a month or so, challenge the
very survival of Abu Dhabi, for how many Emiratis let alone expats
would be able to last +40c/105f temperatures without electricity?

The Emirates capital city would have to import Liquified Natural Gas
(LNG) which it doesn't have the infrastructure prepared for as well as
convert its electrical generators to LNG from natural gas, something
that could take over a month to get up and running, no matter the
$Billions the Emirates have to throw at the problem.

So the Saudis picking a fight with their long time villains, the
Qatari's, could crash the Emirates economy and put a serious strain on
the so called “coalition of the willing”, that is those still
committed to the quagmire in Yemen and its assorted crimes, another
source of strain between the two allies.

The Emirates hate the Qatari's, not without reason, and we know that
the Emirates foreign legion has been concocting nasty plans against
them in league with a pro-Israel PR Hit Squad in the USA. Still, the
Emirates are dependent on Qatari gas so the shit could really hit the
fan if the young newly crowned Saudi Prince and de facto commander in
chief steps over the line and provokes a Qatari response.

Qatar and Iran, the “snake” that the Saudi’s so infamously wanted the
CIA to cut the head off of, share the Pars natural gas field under the
Persian gulf waters, the 3rd largest such in the world whose
exploitation of has made Qatar the worlds largest natural gas
exporter. If Qatar gets into a serious fight with Iran, which is what
the Saudis are demanding, than the Qatari economy could hit the skids
for Qatar only exports 600k barrels of oil a day, not nearly enough to
sustain its international and domestic commitments.

Reality is the Emirates have much more serious trade relations with
Iran than Qatar. Oman on the other hand, has even closer economic and
political ties with its ancient fraternal brothers and sisters in the
land of the Persians and the Saudi’s aren’t attacking the Omanis, so
why the pissing match with Qatar?

Like I said, this animosity is nothing new just the latest flare up,
for back in 2014 the Saudis led a break in diplomatic ties that lasted
8 months, and are now led by a much more hotheaded royal, in his early
thirties and up until Trump, it seemed that the USA had abandoned the
Saudis in favor of the nuclear deal with Iran, taking regime change
off the table and leaving the Arabs on their own.

These have been scary times for the Arabian peninsula tribes, leading
to amongst other actions, the Emirates giving the UN Security Council
and its sanctions against Eritrea, in other words the USA, the finger
by building its new navy base and airfield in Assab, Eritrea.

Qatar and the royal family of Saud, both installed by the British
after WW1, have been at each others throats for many years now. We
know thanks to Wikileaks the Qatari's were pushing the Americans to
engineer a coup against the Saudis while the house of Saud was trying
to restore the grandfather of the present Emir, whose father deposed
his own father in a palace coup and who was forced to abdicate to his
son by the Saudis.

The Saudis can’t militarily attack Qatar, not with the largest US
military installation in west Asia and everyone knows it. The so
called “economic blockade” of Qatar has failed so far with Turkey
stepping in to provide everything Qatar needs.

True, the Al Jazeera satelite television channel has been a finger in
the eye of the Saudis and Emirates but AJ’s main viewer base in
Africa, west and south Asia, over a billion people, is via the two
main satellite channels, Arabsat and Nilesat. These free channels can
be accessed by anyone for as little as $40 for a satellite dish and
receiver and a television. Arabsat is owned by the Saudis and Nilesat
by Egypt. They kicked the Iranian Arabic channel off just like the
Europeans kicked off Iran’s PressTV from their satellite systems. So
why is the anti-Qatar lot allowing Al Jazeera to continue to spew its
attacks on them via the big two satellite channels they own?

Why? Its a pissing contest, really, and other than pissing and moaning
little of anything in the way of real conflict is going on. Maybe this
will change in time but its hard to see the major powers
internationally allowing this to get out of hand. The Saudis
eventually will to try some face saving “compromise” and Qatar might
have to eat some crow, but when all is said and done all of it will
amount to little more than a urine stain on the political fabric on
the Arabian Peninsula.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and
reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook or
best reach him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com