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YEREVAN. - The reasons behind the developments round Qatar are much deeper, Arabist Sargis Grigoryan said in an interview with Armenian News – NEWS.am on Wednesday.

Referring to the reasons behind the severance by eight states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, Maldives, Mauritius and Mauritania) of diplomatic ties with Qatar and the consequences thereof, the expert said that the aforementioned states claim that Qatari Emir announced that the relations with Shia Iran should be improved, whereas the latter is the adversary of the Arabic monarchies of the Persian Gulf.

“This idea of Qatari leader contradicts the united policy of Persian Gulf Arabic monarchies with regard to Iran. The next reason is that Qatar constantly supports extremist Islamic radical institutions, which are looked upon as hostile and terrorist by the aforementioned countries. But I think the reasons are deeper. First, it should be noted that such an escalation of situation occurred in the past as well. The last one was in 2014, when Mohamed Morsi came to power in Egypt and Qatar evidently supported the Muslim Brotherhood institution and its leader Mohamed Morsi, who later became a president. All the other Persian Gulf states, for instance Saudi Arabia—which thinks that Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist institution and shouldn’t be supported—were against that policy,” he noted.  

 

According to the Arabist, it was exactly then that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha, the relations normalizing in a few months.

Referring to the accusations made against Qatar, Grigoryan said that they are artificial, since Saudi Arabia also continues supporting the extremist radical Islamic forces. “After the regional visit of US President Donald Trump it became apparent that US is returning to the Middle East with more precise steps, and it is no coincidence that Trump’s visit started from Saudi Arabia. The US vision on that it is forming an anti-terrorist platform round Saudi Arabia, which should fight ISIS and Al Qaeda, can clearly be seen here.

It was clear that Saudi Arabia was chosen as the axis, and it is apparent that through the recent developments attempt is made to shadow or neutralize the states, which were hesitant about joining that anti-terrorist axis.”

In his words, Saudi Arabia is involved in this, trying to weaken and neutralize the state of Qatar, which is one of the key Arabic states.

Asked to which extent Qatar will be able to resist the unprecedented pressure from the aforementioned countries and whether the Qatari Emir will mange to retain his throne, Grigoryan said that there are different wings in the Qatar elite, which are struggling for power.

“There are controversies in the royal family, The current Emir came to power in peaceful conditions in 2013, inheriting the power from his father, but, of course, there are controversies here. I think at this stage Qatar is able to resist such challengers although it is noticeable that Doha is sending certain messages not to further exacerbate the situation and improve it,” he said.

Responding to the question as to whether the accusations by the eight states on that Qatar has links to and supports extremist institutions and groups are justified, this campaign against the country not being a provocation, the expert said that it is certainly not a provocation, since Qatar once used to apparently support the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization which is considered as terrorist by some states. The Taliban and Hamas have representations in Qatar as well, he added.

“During the Syrian conflict in 2013, Al Qaeda or IS were funded as opposition camp representatives, and when the conflict exacerbated and IS became as we see it today, the funding by Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia stopped.  I think these states no longer fund IS. But let us not forget that Saudi Arabia continues to fund the Islamic radical institutions in the same Syrian conflicts and doesn’t conceal this,”the Arabist noted.

Referring to the possibility of the involvement of superpowers in the situation round Qatar, the expert stressed that this can be considered as a common chain.

“The reasons can be observed both from global and regional perspectives,” he said, adding that the US is returning to make the region more controllable, while Qatar—with its pro-Iranian stance—seems to be left outside these plans, hindering that policy.

Speaking about the relations between Armenia and Qatar, as well as the impact that the campaign against the country can have on the bilateral relations, Grigoryan said: “I think if all this is quickly resolved, we will have serious promising potential here, and not only in terms of commodity turnover. We have a community in Qatar. As a powerful Arabic state, Qatar can be used to make the existence of our community in the Middle East as unshakable as possible, also making the region more predictable for us. ”

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