Gulf: Struggle between Wahhabites and Muslim Brotherhoods, not Iran, at the origin of crisis

Riyadh will not negotiate the terms dictated in Doha to resolve the crisis. Otherwise Qatar will remain "isolated". Blockade sees first repercussions, with a decline in tourism. Ankara's economic and military rescue of Doha as Turkey raises campaign against Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.


Ankara (AsiaNews) - Saudi Arabia does not intend to negotiate on the conditions set last week in Qatar to end the Gulf crisis in which a group of Arab nations oppose Doha. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir says "we have taken our steps and now it is up to the Qataris to fine-tune their behavior". If that does not happen, Doha is "destined to remain isolated".

Meanwhile, the first repercussions of the blockade imposed following the Riyadh and Doha clashes, particularly in the tourism sector, are being noted: for the Eid celebration, Qatar's top five-star hotels had 57% of occupied rooms when in the past it was all sold out. Doha International Airport also has 27,000 passengers less per day than the same period last year.

Tourism is one of the areas where Qatar leadership is heading, to free its economy from dependence on gas and oil proceeds.

Below we propose an analysis of Turkey's role in the Gulf crisis and the strengthening of the neo-Ottoman plan desired by Ankara's current leadership and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Not Iran, a pretext for a façade, but the opposition between the Wahhabites and the Muslim Brotherhood (Qatar and Turkey) is the real reason for a clash within the Arab world:

As the world speaks of a Sunni anti-Iranian coalition in the Gulf, the voices that circulate since the start of the Qatar crisis speak of a silent war for Sunni supremacy between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, rather than the Confessional Cold War with Tehran. The news that emerged these days in Turkey accuse the United Arab Emirates (EAU) of maneuvering the ranks of a plot aimed at destabilizing economic and political power in the crescent moon.

According to trustworthy sources, in Ankara, a high-level power gathering is under way to decide on "adequate" responses to the "interference" of the Emirates in Turkey's internal affairs. According to some, a military option has even been suggested to teach the Gulf monarchies that "Turkey is not Egypt". Earlier, Abu Dhabi had threatened to stop any investment with Ankara for its position in defense of Qatar.

The Turkish press has reported the comments of President Erdogan, who said: "Some threaten to stop financial investment with Turkey. I - he added - ask them: by chance did Turkey progress through your money? We will never be silent on injustice, "said Erdogan, in public intervention at the end of Ramadan. He then went on to say ironically: "A small country should not dare to threaten Turkey to withdraw funding. The Turkish economy does not rely on their money, because it is not a primitive economy or an oil return. "

The Turkish anti-Emirate campaign then intensified following another news item in Takvim's daily newspaper, which reported massive amounts of money and tolls of billionaires paid by Abu Dhabi to the chief prosecutor of the Turkish Republic Zakariya Oz. He is the magistrate protagonist of the corruption investigation that has threatened to eradicate the Erdogan clan from the national political stage on the eve of the last presidential elections.

From this it is understood that the roots of the underground struggle are not related to the crisis with Qatar, which seems to be only the tip of the iceberg of a conflict that divides the roots of the Islamic world of political Sunnism between Wahhabites and Ikhwan, the Muslims Brotherhood. The crisis that has enveloped Qatar has allowed Turkey to open a military base near Doha, becoming the second Nato base in Qatar and a short distance away from Iran after the two American bases of Adid and Seyliye.

Qatar could not afford to invite Turkish militants to the country without the tacit agreement and green light of the United States, which has the second largest weapon depot base in the world in Qatar. It is second only to the base in Pennsylvania, with ammunition worth $ 36 billion. According to some, it is destined more for patrol and control of East Asia and the borders with China, than neighboring Iran.

What irritates the Turkish president most is that the 13 conditions imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to lift the blockade and the resume diplomatic relations, also include the "closure of the Turkish military base in Qatar ". It was opened after the crisis and cannot have been a trigger for contention, rather an aggravating factor. Using the crisis as an excuse the Gulf States block is trying to close it down, as it is suspected of Ankara's high spheres. The answer came in the context of a telephone conversation between the Turkish Foreign Minister and his Saudi counterpart at Jubair, on the occasion of the mutual exchange of congratulations for Eid al-Fitr's on June 24, marking the end of the Holy month of fasting and prayer. During the call Minister Oglu stressed that "the Turkish base in Qatar is a concerted act between two sovereign states, whose decisions must be respected and that no other country is involved."

For the first time since 1913, Turkish military have returned to occupy the shores of the Persian / Arabian Gulf, from where they had been forced out before the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Presenting itself at the beginning of the Gulf crisis as a mediator, Ankara immediately changed track to one of defending Qatar. Now, in Riyadh, past nightmares are re-emerging, of a massacre carried out by the Turks in 1818 by Ibrahim, son of Ottoman Turkish governor Mehmet Ali Pasha, who sacked the capital of the first Saudi secessionist state (Dariya ). He also led the self-appointed King Abdallah Ben Saud to the scaffold in Constantinople.

The crisis with Qatar reveals the true nature of the struggle, which for the public is aimed at clashing with Shiite Iran. In reality, it is nothing more than a real inter-Sunni intestinal struggle for leadership between two opposing political-religious circles: Wahhabism (supported by Saudi Arabia, Emirati and Bahrain) and Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwanism (backed by Turkey, Qatar and Hamas) (PB)