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Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations have severed diplomatic and transport ties with the Gulf state of Qatar, claiming Doha's regional policies fuel extremism and terrorism.
The synchronised attempt to isolate Qatar also includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, escalating a simmering dispute over Qatar's support for political Islam and perceptions that Doha is open to closer ties with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival, Iran.
Source: Financial Times
Two weeks ago, the same four countries blocked Qatari news sites, including Al Jazeera. Controversial comments purportedly by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani criticising Saudi Arabia appeared on Qatari state media.
Source: BBC News
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, Al Arabiya reported, citing state media outlets from the Gulf countries. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt said they will suspend air and sea travel to Qatar, while Riyadh said it would close overland border crossings with its Gulf neighbor as well. Bahrain gave Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave, while Saudi Arabia gave Qatari citizens two weeks to leave. Qatar has also reportedly been cut out of the coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen. The breakdown of diplomatic ties stems from tensions over Doha's relationship with Tehran and its alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood. With a small population and a unitary state centralized around Doha, Qatar lacks the internal ethno-religious tensions and political insecurities of its neighbors.
Source: Stratfor
A group claims it will begin publishing the private emails of the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States this weekend, according to a report from The Daily Beast.
"GlobalLeaks" - which does not appear to be related to the WikiLeaks-type website sharing the same name - sent 55 pages of Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba's emails to the news outlet along with a message saying the group would publish the entire cache this Saturday.
According to the message, the leaked emails will demonstrate "how a small rich country/company used lobbyists to hurt American interests and those of it allies."
Source: The Hill
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:26AM
There was an eerily prescient document laid out by all the big names during Bush's presidency called, Rebuilding America's Defenses [informationclearinghouse.info](PDF). The think tank behind this was Project for the New American Century [wikipedia.org]. That Wiki page has some notes on Rebuilding Americas Defenses if reading a 90 page military policy document isn't your idea of a pleasant evening. The reason this is relevant is because Obama, in foreign policy, followed the exact same neoconservative outline that the document proposed. And now Trump is also doing the exact same thing. Political affiliations aside, that document is a revealing look into the zeitgeist of foreign/military policy in DC.
That document explains, in nearly complete detail, the logic behind all of our seemingly irrational decisions on foreign policy. So in particular with the Mideast - one crucial view the espouse is preventing an international competitor of any sort. If the Mideast was left alone, eventually it would unify under either a strongman or a charismatic leader. And in all probability this new super-nation would be incredibly hostile to the United States. By continuing to poke the hornet's nest and disrupt the Mideast, the US is effectively keeping the entire region in an infantile state of development. And in terms of the preventing of an international competitor - this doesn't just stop at traditional enemies. The mass Islamic migration to the EU has resulted in predictable turmoil, violence, and a general weakening of the EU. This supports not only US interests, but also the interests of organizations like ISIS. I'd expect to see semi-regular terrorist attacks in Britain at least unless Brexit is finalized (April 2019), to constantly remind the public of one of the reasons they're leaving the EU.
And on the topic of ISIS - they are an ideal tool. They are centralized and in locations where the US could engage in mostly traditional warfare with them. We could turn them into scurrying rats left hiding in caves and safe houses, similar to what happened to Al Qaeda - who at one time had open well known training camps. But again, this entire notion of marginalizing the rest of the world to our benefit is something that once again explains our lack of gusto in bringing them down. Turkey is also now radicalizing itself at the same time Trump invites them to the white house and praises Erdogan as an "ally in the fight against terror."
And to be clear I have 0 support for any of these sort of actions. In fact I'd call most of these things nothing short of sociopathic. Nonetheless, read that document if you want to make sense of why we're acting the way we are. It, to this day, continues to explain our actions incredibly well. It also even goes into detail on the government/military beginning take control over cyberspace and even space itself. The latter being something we're at this very moment pursuing. The document also suggested that the transformation of American armed forces through "new technologies and operational concepts" was likely to be a long one, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." This was before 9/11, which must have been like a wet dream to the authors. Looking to the future, they even want to start developing things along the lines of 'battle mechs' of the sort you might see in a Japanese anime. Really crazy stuff. Very interesting and important document.