The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties to Qatar.It's worrisome because this feels like the US should have more of a State Department for times just like this. I just don't know whether this was something on the US radar, what the national security implications are, or how this impacts US involvement in the area, which is entirely normal, because I'm just a civilian with a blog. It's just that I don't know the extent to which my government is prepared to deal with a major foreign policy shakeup.
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.
Qatari officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The dispute between Qatar and the Gulf's Arab countries started over a purported hack of Qatar's state-run news agency. It has spiraled since.
It worries me.
UPDATE: Just for added context--
QATAR
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) June 5, 2017
- Hosts US Central Command base
- Strategic relations with Turkey
- Only land border is with Saudi
- World's 3rd largest gas reserves pic.twitter.com/te50SY9w3v
Also--what does this have to do with Yemen and the Houthis? Also--is invasion the next step, since everything is obviously progressing quite quickly?
2 comments:
This is part of the long march toward a massive regional conflict, with the sides aligning behind Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran. Egypt is a non-entity in this, but their institutionalized hatred for the Muslim Brotherhood is driving them. UAE will go with Saudi. Bahrain is the wild card - Shi'ite majority, Sunni government, home of the US fifth fleet.
Eventually, there will be a war between Iran and their proxies and Saudi and their proxies. If it is a stratightforward affair, it will happen in the geographic middle - the poor bastards in Iraq. The strategic key is Sunni Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Lots to watch here, but mainly just an ongoing alignment of sides...
Whenever it looks like history will let Iraq breathe for a minute, history says, "No." This seems to have been playing out in Yemen for a while--and based on that conflict (it actually looks a lot like genocide to me) this could be very ugly.
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