There’s a history needed for context here.  But first, here’s the latest developments in order of their occurrence.

♦ 6:00am Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement early Monday saying it would withdraw its diplomatic mission from the Qatari capital of Doha within 48 hours and that all Qatari diplomats should leave Bahrain within the same period.

The ministry’s statement said Qatari citizens needed to leave Bahrain within two weeks and that air and sea traffic between the two countries would be halted. It wasn’t immediately clear how that would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers.

Bahrain blamed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” for its decision.

♦ 7:00am Saudi Arabia says it is cutting diplomatic ties to Qatar and it has pulled all Qatari troops from the ongoing war in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia made the announcement via its state-run Saudi Press Agency early Monday. It appeared to be timed in concert with an earlier announcement by Bahrain similarly cutting ties.

♦ 8:00am The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties to Qatar.  The two countries have joined Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in cutting ties to Qatar amid a growing Arab diplomatic dispute with the small, gas-rich nation.

Both the UAE and Egypt made the announcement on their state-run news agencies within minutes of each other.

Qatar has been a source of historic extremist and terrorist related problems for the Gulf Security Council and aforementioned Gulf States.

Here’s some historic background for possible context on the latest developments:

  • Qatar was the intermediary used by President Obama for covert arms and monetary transfers by the Obama CIA and Obama/Clinton State Department respectively.
  • Qatar was also the chosen home for detainees when President Obama released the GITMO terrorists.
  • Most importantly however, is the relationship between Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood.  When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi named the Muslim Brotherhood a terror organization, their leadership fled to safe harbor in Qatar.

el-sisi in Saudi

Egyptian President Fattah al-Sisi then began a months and years long assembly of Gulf Arab states (Gulf Security Council) to boycott Qatar, cut all diplomatic ties and isolate them until they renounced terrorism and stopped providing safe harbor for extremists.

Eventually Qatar acquiesced and sent the Muslim Brotherhood to Turkey.

President al-Sisi then asked Interpol to watch carefully and notify him if the Muslim Brotherhood were ever allowed to leave Turkey.  [Yeah, al-Sisi is a badass like that]  Recep Erdogan gave the Brotherhood safe harbor in Turkey.

◾2013 President al-Sisi charged and prosecuted the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. They fled to Qatar.  (link)
◾2014 President al-Sisi followed the MB to Qatar and initiated sanctions against Qatar until they stopped financing and harboring terror.  (link)
◾2015 Unrelenting President al-Sisi then formed a coalition against Qatar including the UAE and Saudi Arabia who withdrew their ambassadors and isolated Qatar in the region.  (link)  (link)

The extremist attack in Egypt last week was notably carried out by sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The attack was launched from Libya.  Libyan Dawn, ISIS, al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and al-Qaeda North Africa (AQIM) are all affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood political extremist construct.  All of these entities have found financial resources structured, and/or organized, from inside Qatar.

Against the backdrop of President Trump calling for a joint coalition against extremist and violent Islamic terrorism it doesn’t come as a surprise to see the Gulf Arab States once again confronting Qatar in 2017.

The difference is this time (2017) they have a U.S. President willing to support the global effort to hunt down and eliminate the extremists.

“Drive Them Out” !

 

 

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