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At the beginning of summer, Qatar was subjected to an Iranian airstrike. Yesterday, with the season drawing to an end, it was Israel’s turn to hit the oil-rich kingdom.
On both occasions it wasn’t Qataris themselves that were being targeted, but rather who they were hosting: U.S. troops and Hamas negotiators, respectively.
Those military operations by the Middle East’s biggest adversaries in a third nation not at war with either underscore a simple truth for Gulf states: They can’t rise above the chaos.
David Mednicoff, an expert on Middle Eastern politics at UMass Amherst, explains how, in many ways, the Gulf monarchies of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE have a lot going for them. They are, of course, very wealthy. Meanwhile, the inauguration of Donald Trump has put a very Gulf-friendly U.S. president in the White House. Elsewhere, Iran – a persistent rival to the Saudis in particular – has seen its influence clipped, and Syria’s destabilizing civil war has come to an end.
And yet, the Gulf states remain hostage to events elsewhere, writes Mednicoff, chief among them the war in Gaza and its fallout.
“The monarchs of the Arab Gulf would like to maintain their unchallenged domestic political status while expanding their influence in the Middle East and beyond. However, even when Gulf leaders wish to be done with the region’s challenges, those challenges are not always done with them,” he adds.
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