Qatar should read ‘Baraqish’ tale of self-destruction

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“THE solution to sanctions imposed on Qatar by the four countries will come from the Gulf house”. This is the truth the Qatari officials are told in each capital they visit, and Western officials visiting Doha also give the same advice.

However, Qatar is still persistent on playing the part of a victim through its diplomatic and media campaigns with the main objective of rejecting the voice of reason.

Qatar’s current situation reminds me of the 1990s when the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein used to come out and brag that the blockade will not affect Iraq, as it had capacity to withstand it for 100 years.

At that time, the Arab and Western mouthpieces he used to fund were feigning tears on the Iraqi children who were dying of hunger, claiming the hunger was caused by the blockade on milk and medicine.

The same ‘song’ is being played by Arab and Western media mouthpieces funded by Qatar today, but the difference between the past Iraq and the current Qatar is that information revolution and media expose such fake news and narratives in the media. Therefore, if Saddam Hussein managed to distort the reality with four or five billion dollars, the sum Qatari administration is paying today for the same purpose will be of no avail, because such efforts will never distort the facts.

This question has been skipping the minds of those behind the current fake media war waged through some Arab and Western print media, beginning with Al-Jazeera. Why are they requesting the removal of what they term as ‘embargo’, and at the same time, claiming the people of Qatar are not affected by the situation since all commodities are imported from Turkey and Iran without hindrance?

Why the need for paid media campaigns on British taxis or street advertisements in some Arab and Western cities if the leadership is capable of overcoming the so-called embargo on the State? Could this be an attempt to repeat the same scenario of lie perpetrated by Hassan Nasrallah in 2006 when he spoke about Divine Victory and later said “Had I known that Israel would respond so fiercely I would not have decided to take the challenging decision” when he realized the rate of destruction caused by his adventure; Lebanon is still suffering from effects of the incident after almost 11 years.

All Arab and foreign officials who held meetings with Qatari officials inside or outside Doha did not ask them to abdicate their sovereignty, as the country claimed, and they did not tell them ‘throw your country in hell’. They were rather trying to rescue the sisterly country from self-afflicted pitfall. The intervention was to ensure stability through offer to abandon support for terrorist groups in order to avoid situation whereby magic will be working against the magician.

What is wrong with this offer, except the administration in Doha regards itself as the only one toeing the right path by supporting terrorist groups, while the entire world is wrong.

The four countries that declared war against terrorism have announced for umpteenth times in the past weeks readiness for dialogue but Qatar insisted there could be negotiations only if the so-called embargo is removed. This is naturally illogical, especially as the condition is coming from the weaker party in the calculation.

All that remains to be said is: Qatar should return to the default path which has been determined by all the countries – the Kuwaiti initiative to resolve the crisis within the Gulf’s house, and stop betting on illusion in the bid to achieve illusory victory through the media and diplomatic campaigns that distort facts.

Doha will not benefit from boasting of mercenaries on the television screens or through its media, which claims to have defeated King Salman and the King of Bahrain, or it has aborted the plan of Muhammad bin Zayed or even squashed the ideas of Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi – all these are clamor of empty vessels.

All Qatar needs to do is to exit from this self-imposed crisis and perhaps learn from history. Its administration should only read the story of the ancient town of “Baraqish” (in Yemen) with regard to what it did to itself.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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