Of course, I should explain about Qatar.

In fact, this topic is terribly old, like that of Russia and Ukraine. Saudis at all that around them look like their own fiefdom and are trying to subdue under themselves, roughly like Putin. With Qatar they did not work out: since 1995, when Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani overthrew his father and became Emir of Qatar, they had a big split. Qatar embarked on a course of economic independence, eventually became the world's largest LNG producer, abandoned the topic of building gas pipelines through Saudi Arabia, all exported by sea, independent, earned a lot of money, started its global television channel, began to conduct its independent foreign policy. For saudi it's like a thorn in the eye.

The key message that Qatar billeted the largest US military base and the Air and Space Operations Directorate of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces is directly related to the desire to protect themselves from the aggression of the Saudis. Well, you understand.

Relations completely went one place after bin Khalifa transferred power to his son in 2013. Qatar has since become even more independent, more wealthy, more independent in foreign policy.

Whatever they say about "Qatar's support for Islamist groups" (Qatar does support a lot of any selective Islamist shit around the world, but the Saudis are absolutely no better at this point), the real situation - like all current confrontations in the Middle East - is connected with the Global confrontation Saudi Arabia vs Iran. Qatar among the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula is considered an "unreliable link," the "fifth column," which advocates rapprochement with Iran. A direct pretext for the current crisis was such things as a telephone conversation between the Emir of Qatar and the Iranian president Ruhani this spring, as well as the remarks of the Emir of Qatar after Trump's visit to Riyadh, where the Qatari leader blamed the US for tough anti-Iranian rhetoric and called for a dialogue with Tehran. (Qataris then said that their sites hacked and the emir did not say anything, but no one believes. ) At once I will say: to me in the Iranian question, of course, the position of Qatar is closer. Iran is in one way or another much more democratic than Saudi despotism, open to dialogue with the West, there recently elected a new president for normal relations with the West. What is happening in Saudi Arabia, you, I think, heard is the worst despotism in the world, and there Wahhabism is the official state doctrine.

The trigger for the current conflict, of course, was the visit of an illiterate American grandfather to Riyadh. The illiterate American grandfather, unlike his predecessors, who tried to do everything to observe the complex balance of power in the region, made a very greyhound one-sided rhetoric in support of the Saudis.

The Saudis, being not very distant, took it as a call to action. They according to the Asian habit believe that once the macho said, macho did. And do not really understand that the American grandfather - the owner of his word, gave the word - he took the word, he has America First, and he will not get involved in any inter-Arab disassembly - he will just pull off his rhetoric, and therefore his words are not much Stand, like any of his other words. (By the way, where is there a powerful attack on Assad, which the hawks blew to us 2 months ago after being hit by the Syrian airbase?. As it was said, it turned out to be a one-time PR action. ) But, nevertheless, the Saudis took the words of the grandfather literally and immediately went to shred their immediate victims.

I think this situation will not come to an end, since Qatar is strong, rich, the world's largest LNG supplier, no one will arrange any naval blockade, especially as it has already been noted that strategic military units of the United States. Pay attention, Qatar behaves calmly, does not react to pressure, does not hurry with response measures, waits for the Saudi hysterics to pass.

Such influential regional players as Kuwait and Oman did not join the boycott of Qatar, their mediation is expected in the settlement of the situation. I think the settlement will come. The Saudis just decided to take them for ponts, but it clearly shows that this does not work out.

For American prestige in the region, all this is a colossal blow: the US will now increasingly perceive itself as the North American branch of Riyadh, with all the ensuing consequences. The Silent Failure of the United States on Level Ground. Their military positions after this one way or another, too, will rock..

For oil this does not affect anything. Qatar extracts scanty volumes of oil, 2% of OPEC production. I do not see gas either:

how much sea exports are exported, no one will give the blockade (see who the importers of Qatar LNG are). That is, everything goes its own way.

In general, this is some kind of nonsense, then that the Saudis and their satellites staged. I think it will all be resolved in the near future. Well, the biggest failure of American diplomacy in recent decades, of course.

Editorial site is not responsible for the content of blogs. The editorial opinion may differ from the author's.

Join the group "Browser Blogs" on Facebook, stay tuned!.