DOHA: The blockade against Qatar wasn’t an instant reaction and was in the works for months by Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed who were driven by intense envy and rage at the meteoric rise of Qatar in the region and on the global stage, a new book has revealed.
The book also describes in vivid detail the developments that led to the blockade and the wily machinations by the two leaders, all of which “spectacularly backfired”.
The stunning revelations came in the recently released Blood and Oil – Mohammed bin Salman’s Ruthless Quest for Global Power, written by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck, both reporters with The Wall Street Journal. The book, a page-turner, is a vivid portrait of the treachery and power grabs in the Saudi royal court and lifts the veil on the true character of MBS, who is shaking the country.
“The wily sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, together with allies, had long been looking for an excuse to cut Qatar off, alienate it, and make life so unpleasant it would finally agree to their demands. It was the most aggressive foreign policy move in the region’s short history. It backfired spectacularly,” Hope and Scheck said in the book.
“The plan to isolate and neutralize Qatar had been in the works for months. The guile and intrigue would later lead pundits to refer to it as a ‘Game of Thobes’,”they add.
The book contains a special chapter on the siege of Qatar, which meticulously uncovers the plot and circumstances that led to the blockade. It also narrates how US President Donald Trump, instead of acting as a moderating influence when America’s allies were on the verge of a war, blatantly supported one side and even used expletives while referring to the crisis.
An elaborate strategy was worked out by MBS’ cronies to target and finish off Qatar, which included a media strategy to tarnish Qatar’s image and portray it as a supporter of terrorism and a destabilising force in the Middle East. Journalists were ranked as friendly, neutral or hostile in their attitude towards Saudi Arabia in preparation for the plan against Qatar.
“The topmost influential journalists they could count on were Tom Friedman, a New York Times columnist who had been praising MBS as a reformer; David Ignatius at the Washington Post; Bret Baier at Fox News; and Norah O’Donnell at CBS News. Fareed Zakaria at CNN was the most hostile journalist with a high influence ranking.”
Once the blockade was imposed, Trump added fuel to the fire by siding with the blockading countries.
“Instead of providing a moderating influence, the United States seemed to be instigating animosity against Qatar,” the book says.
“You have got to take care of this,” Trump advisor Steve Bannon reportedly told Mohammed bin Zayed. “These guys are worse than Persia. They are right in your grill.”
“With the White House seemingly supporting their desire to escalate the conflict, there seemed little risk for the Saudi and Emirati princes in trying to bring Qatar to heel,” Hope and Scheck say.
But Rex Tillerson, then Secretary of State, tried to stop things from getting out of hand. He argued that the US’ Al Udeid military base would be at risk if three of the world’s biggest buyers of arms suddenly started pointing them at each other. “The idea that Saudi Arabia would use American tanks, American fighter planes and American missiles against Qatar, was unacceptable,” Tillerson said.
But Trump was adamant and insensitive to the suffering of people in Qatar. When Tillerson told him that students in Qatar were not going to be able to take their exams and there was not going to be any milk in the grocery store, Trump said: “I don’t give a f.. about milk.”
Hope and Scheck also explain how the blockade backfired. “Instead of falling in line, Qatar dug in. Its vast wealth helped. While it couldn’t import milk via Saudi Arabia anymore, it could fly in cows by the hundreds to create a self-sustaining dairy farm.”
If that’s how Qatar overcame the blows on its economy and food chain, on the foreign policy front too, Saudi and the UAE achieved exactly the opposite of what they had wanted. The siege was meant to separate Qatar from Iran and Turkey, but they became closer.
“(Qatar) struck closer relationships with Iran, the longtime Gulf adversary, and Turkey…Turkey built its first military base in the Middle East. A boycott intended to break Qatar away from rivals Iran and Turkey had driven the tiny country closer to them.”
The book also explains how the Qatar News Agency website was hacked by the blockading countries on the eventful day and fake messages posted in the name of the Amir.
Using their reporting skills, Hope and Scheck gleaned information from confidential government documents, financial filings and the largely unsuccessful business pursuits of the MBS.
The authors have gone to painstaking lengths to lift the veil on the character of MBS. They portray a wily palace operator with an elephantine memory and work ethic rare in the Saudi royal court, an individual who sharpened his cut-throat instincts well before he walked onto the global stage.