Blood and Oil by Bradley Hope

Author:Bradley Hope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2020-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Blockade”

May 2017

Early on the morning of May 24, 2017, as Donald Trump was wrapping up the Israel leg of his first overseas trip as president, several bizarre statements from the emir of Qatar popped onto the website of the Qatar News Agency (QNA). It took just seconds for regional media in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to pick up the news and broadcast it far and wide, amplifying the reach so that millions of people saw the reports.

“Iran represents a regional and Islamic power that cannot be ignored and it is unwise to face up against it,” Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told a military graduation in Arabic, according to the QNA accounts. “It is a big power in the stabilization of the region.” The statement amounted to treason among the most influential Persian Gulf states, which see Iran as the greatest threat and aggressor in the region.

Only it was all a ruse. Tamim had never given the speech or issued such a statement. Other reports were also false, including descriptions of tensions with US president Donald Trump, whom Tamim allegedly said might not last a full term; of Qatar’s good relationship with Israel; and of the emir’s admiration of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Roused from bed, the thirty-seven-year-old Tamim ordered a statement issued denouncing the fake messages, and his ministers managed to get one out within forty-five minutes. But it was too late to stop the flood of Arabic news coverage on Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya and the United Arab Emirates’ Sky News Arabia.

The Qatari royal family knew immediately that their government systems were compromised, and they felt certain their increasingly assertive neighbors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE were involved. It took weeks for forensic evidence to emerge showing their systems had been infiltrated by a Russian cyber-mercenary group that had been hired for the job.

The ruling Al Thani had been on thin ice with their bigger neighbors for years, building on tensions lasting decades, but they hadn’t seen the sneak attack coming and initially underestimated the resolve of their adversaries. The old Gulf spats involved flare-ups, followed by mediation sessions led by the emir of Kuwait or sultan of Oman, after which the regional alliance was patched up with some grumbling. This new conflict was sudden and all-encompassing.

Within thirteen days, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and their closest allies, including Egypt and the tiny Comoro Islands, moved in lockstep to impose a full boycott of Qatar. They ejected Qatari citizens from their countries, severed financial ties, and refused to allow Qatari planes to use their airspace. Grocery stores ran out of food because the country had relied on land-based trade with Saudi Arabia for dairy products and other key produce. Even camels grazing just over the border were ejected.

Mohammed bin Salman, feeling emboldened by the Trump visit, even mulled invading Qatar by land if the country didn’t yield to a set of demands that included dismantling the Al Jazeera television channel and completely ceasing any foreign policy agenda diverging from that of its neighbors.

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