(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula Online
In a scathing indictment to the Siege quartet that has cut trade, travel, diplomatic ties with Qatar, the Financial Times, world's leading business daily said in its editorial that the 'dispute is damaging all concerned.
'With help from President Donald Trump, Riyadh and its Arab allies have painted themselves into a corner at a precarious moment for the Gulf, starts the
'It is seven weeks since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain clubbed together to impose a blockade on Qatar in an attempt to bend the gas-rich emirate's rulers to their will. There are few signs that US and regional mediation is making progress towards breaking the impasse, even though it is clear that the dispute is damaging all concerned, it said
'In effect, Saudi Arabia and its allies have asked Qatar to volunteer for vassal status as the price for ending a trade and diplomatic embargo. Their initial demands included closing Al Jazeera, the Doha-based broadcaster; scaling back co-operation with Iran, with which Qatar shares its gas; evicting a Turkish military base; and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. They also required the emirate to submit to regular compliance checks. it said.
'Qatar is a city state on the flank of the far larger kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It cannot change its geography, it notes.
'…they have escalated a spat fuelled by personal enmities into a regional crisis before giving diplomacy a chance. They were encouraged along this path by President Trump, whose overt alignment with Saudi Arabia has undermined efforts by Rex Tillerson to end the crisis. Gulf society is hierarchical. Unless Mr Trump is seen to support his secretary of state it is unlikely the latter can make much headway. it said
'Mr Tillerson has called for an end to the embargo. Mr Trump should encourage the club of four to draw back to provide an opening for talks. While it is reasonable to expect Qatar to compromise, it cannot be expected to relinquish sovereignty.
'The longer it (Qatar) holds out, the greater the consequences of an imbroglio the outcome of which was ill-considered from the start.
'The effect of the embargo has been to drive a wedge into the US-backed Sunni alliance against Isis and to reinforce Russian and Iranian influence in the region. Inevitably it will also chill the appetite of foreign investors that many Gulf states need to reinvent themselves as non-oil economies. The legality of the blockade is at issue so long as there is no formal casus belli. Allegations that the UAE was behind the hacking of a Qatari website to provide a pretext reinforce such concern. When the rule of law is so transparently subject to the whims of absolute monarchs, investors will of course be shy.
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