Recently, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Qatari troops should replace US soldiers in northern Syria or Washington could pull its support for Doha leading to its downfall. The more so, al-Jubeir warned Qatari government that it faced its imminent demise unless it funded a US military presence in Syria.
The country maintains a military force of approximately 104,100 men, including an Army (65,000), Navy (21,400), Emiri Guard (20,400), Internal Security Forces (15,000) and air force (3,700). Ridiculous! How they are going to fight Assad with such an army?
Inside Syria Media Center experts try to find out the true reasons for quite an interesting statement.
In principle, Qatar draws its strength from those historically linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. In Syria, they include Free Syria Army and Ahrar al-Sham mainly. It is obvious that Saudi Arabia is unlikely to decide to organize a serious conflict if Qatar relies on the support of Iran and Turkey. What is why Qatar is now developing allied relations with Turkey.
In fact, Qatar could send troops to Syria without ‘friendly’ advice of Saudi Arabia. Everything we could hear on the subject is some kind of blackmail that the Saudis are trying to use against Qatar. The presence of Qatar in Syria militarily gives nothing.
Meanwhile, the problem needs to be investigated deeper. The development of relations, both with Saudi Arabia and with Qatar should be analyzed as it is too important primarily for the United States.
President Trump received Qatari leader, complimented him and promised eternal friendship between the two countries immediately after Saudi visit. It means that the White House is interested in Qatari support no less than in Saudi Arabia for two reasons. Qatar is a donor of money and can provide leverage in dealing with Saudi Arabia. This is probably won’t be the last statement directed against Qatar. The State Department is making enormous effort to split the Turkey-Qatar-Iran alliance.
The recent break in diplomatic relations with Qatar is awfully close to it. This aggravation goes according to the following scenario of strengthening Turkey’s influence in the Persian Gulf zone. The US, apparently, is seriously preparing for anti-Iranian actions. It’s probably not a coincidence that Washington once again called on Saudi Arabia for creating an anti-Iranian coalition (Arab countries military coalition) and constantly declares breakout from Iranian nuclear deal.
The missile strike on Syria under the pretext of chemical weapons struck a serious blow at the whole process of political and diplomatic settlement in Syria. The US will fill the liberated zones of influence with Arab forces by all means if decide to leave Syria.
Suddenly, this strike will have serious negative consequences both for Astana process and for the next Geneva talks on Syria. It is not ruled out that the United States will try to drag other ‘allied’ countries to these actions, as they tried to do so with Saudi Arabia. Obviously, al-Jubeir’s rhetoric is a completely staged by the White House. Washington does not want just to warn Qatar about the inadmissibility of its political orientation, but also to threaten, and at the same time to make some money.
As a result, it won’t lead to anything good, because this U.S. policy as always is aimed at destabilizing the situation in the Middle East.