Behind the Scenes at the Saudi-Qatari Pissing Contest

Saudi Arabia, with the bellicose support of President Trump, has

launched a diplomatic and partial economic offensive against the

ridiculously small state of Qatar and is dragging its allies, the

United Arab Emirates in particular, into a potential major headache.

You see the de facto capital of the Emirates is Abu Dhabi which uses

Qatari natural gas to generate half of its electricity via the

Qatar-Abu Dhabi-Oman pipeline. So if Qatar really felt threatened it

would pull the plug, and at least for a month or so, challenge the

very survival of Abu Dhabi, for how many Emiratis let alone expats

would be able to last +40c/105f temperatures without electricity?

The Emirates capital city would have to import Liquified Natural Gas

(LNG) which it doesn't have the infrastructure prepared for as well as

convert its electrical generators to LNG from natural gas, something

that could take over a month to get up and running, no matter the

$Billions the Emirates have to throw at the problem.

So the Saudis picking a fight with their long time villains, the

Qatari's, could crash the Emirates economy and put a serious strain on

the so called “coalition of the willing”, that is those still

committed to the quagmire in Yemen and its assorted crimes, another

source of strain between the two allies.
The Emirates hate the Qatari's, not without reason, and we know that

the Emirates foreign legion has been concocting nasty plans against

them in league with a pro-Israel PR Hit Squad in the USA. Still, the

Emirates are dependent on Qatari gas so the shit could really hit the

fan if the young newly crowned Saudi Prince and de facto commander in

chief steps over the line and provokes a Qatari response.

Qatar and Iran, the “snake” that the Saudi’s so infamously wanted the

CIA to cut the head off of, share the Pars natural gas field under the

Persian gulf waters, the 3rd largest such in the world whose

exploitation of has made Qatar the worlds largest natural gas

exporter. If Qatar gets into a serious fight with Iran, which is what

the Saudis are demanding, than the Qatari economy could hit the skids

for Qatar only exports 600k barrels of oil a day, not nearly enough to

sustain its international and domestic commitments.

Reality is the Emirates have much more serious trade relations with

Iran than Qatar. Oman on the other hand, has even closer economic and

political ties with its ancient fraternal brothers and sisters in the

land of the Persians and the Saudi’s aren’t attacking the Omanis, so

why the pissing match with Qatar?
Like I said, this animosity is nothing new just the latest flare up,

for back in 2014 the Saudis led a break in diplomatic ties that lasted

8 months, and are now led by a much more hotheaded royal, in his early

thirties and up until Trump, it seemed that the USA had abandoned the

Saudis in favor of the nuclear deal with Iran, taking regime change

off the table and leaving the Arabs on their own.
These have been scary times for the Arabian peninsula tribes, leading

to amongst other actions, the Emirates giving the UN Security Council

and its sanctions against Eritrea, in other words the USA, the finger

by building its new navy base and airfield in Assab, Eritrea.

Qatar and the royal family of Saud, both installed by the British

after WW1, have been at each others throats for many years now. We

know thanks to Wikileaks the Qatari's were pushing the Americans to

engineer a coup against the Saudis while the house of Saud was trying

to restore the grandfather of the present Emir, whose father deposed

his own father in a palace coup and who was forced to abdicate to his

son by the Saudis.
The Saudis can’t militarily attack Qatar, not with the largest US

military installation in west Asia and everyone knows it. The so

called “economic blockade” of Qatar has failed so far with Turkey

stepping in to provide everything Qatar needs.
True, the Al Jazeera satelite television channel has been a finger in

the eye of the Saudis and Emirates but AJ’s main viewer base in

Africa, west and south Asia, over a billion people, is via the two

main satellite channels, Arabsat and Nilesat. These free channels can

be accessed by anyone for as little as $40 for a satellite dish and

receiver and a television. Arabsat is owned by the Saudis and Nilesat

by Egypt. They kicked the Iranian Arabic channel off just like the

Europeans kicked off Iran’s PressTV from their satellite systems. So

why is the anti-Qatar lot allowing Al Jazeera to continue to spew its

attacks on them via the big two satellite channels they own?

Why? Its a pissing contest, really, and other than pissing and moaning

little of anything in the way of real conflict is going on. Maybe this

will change in time but its hard to see the major powers

internationally allowing this to get out of hand. The Saudis

eventually will to try some face saving “compromise” and Qatar might

have to eat some crow, but when all is said and done all of it will

amount to little more than a urine stain on the political fabric on

the Arabian Peninsula.
Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and

reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook or

best reach him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com