Here’s Why Gas Prices Are Skyrocketing Right Now

This report was originally published by M.K. Matthews on The Organic Prepper

Global economy and geopolitics are underpinning the oil price surge and gas prices are going up.

Who recalls the oil embargo of 1973? That was when the Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they were cutting oil exports to the United States and other countries that provided military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973.

In six months’ time, gas prices had quadrupled. Prices remained higher even after the embargo ended in March 1974.

But that could never happen again…Or could it?

The current members of OPEC are made up of twelve countries:  Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Let’s look at some of the OPEC members and their current interactions with their friends, frenemies, foes, other random players, and the resultant alliances.

For weeks, tensions have been rising between Iran and Israel, It began in February when, according to Israel, an armed Iranian drone originating from Syria penetrated the Israeli airspace. Israel downed the drone, then attacked the caravan which launched the drone from the T-4 airbase deep in Syrian territory. An Israeli F-16 jet was brought down by a Syrian missile while over Israeli territory. At this point, Israel launched an extensive retaliatory strike on Syrian air defenses and Iranian forces in Syria. This all occurred in one day. It was remarkable because no Israeli plane had been brought down since 1982.

Two months later. seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an airstrike on a Syrian air base, which Iran blamed as being done by Israel. Mutual threats of retaliation have since been issued by both Iran and Israel.  Ultimately the conflict between the two countries depends on the fate of the nuclear deal. On May 12th Trump is anticipated to issue his decision on the deal.

Meanwhile, Iran is dealing with numerous internal issues. To name a few: a struggling economy, the worst drought in 25 years, increasing civil discontent, public demonstrations, and labor strikes. Last week Iranian President Hassan Rohani banned money exchangers from selling U.S. dollars and Euros. Travelers to nearby countries are limited to purchasing just 500 Euros ($615), while those traveling to more distant countries are limited to purchasing 1,000 Euros. Iranians may not hold more than 10,000 USD or 10,000 Euros.

In Israel, longstanding anti-Netanyahu demonstrations against government corruption have gained in size and sentiment. Saturday’s march in Tel Aviv numbered upwards of 4,000 people. Other more recently organized demonstrations, arranged by the Hadash party and composed of Arab Israelis, protested U.S. strikes on Syrian outside the U.S. Consulate in Haifa this weekend.

Meanwhile in Venezuela. Bloomberg outlines the catastrophic economic crisis:

“Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves, has seen a steady decline in production amid lack of money for maintenance and exploration. Venezuela imports about 2 million barrels of heavy naphtha per month, and all of it comes from U.S. Gulf refiners, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  The U.S. is leaning toward imposing oil-sector sanctions on Venezuela before the country holds April 22 elections that opposition leaders have vowed to boycott, according to a senior State Department official.  The official, who asked not to be identified discussing private talks, stressed that no decision has been made and the U.S. is still weighing the impact such sanctions would have on ordinary Venezuelans as well as on U.S. refiners that import heavy Venezuelan crude.”  (source)

A fire on the Libyan oil pipeline has dramatically reduced their output. Libya suffered a major fire on its major export pipeline that was attributed to terrorist activities this past weekend reducing their oil production from 300,000 barrels per day by at least 80,000 barrels per day. It is unknown how long it will take to make the necessary repairs.

Here’s the conclusion reached by OPEC.

OPEC has been meeting this last week and Reuters reported that a Joint Technical Committee meeting held Thursday found that the glut of global oil supplies has been virtually eliminated, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

“Industry sources have linked this shift in Saudi Arabia’s stance to its desire to support the valuation of state oil company Aramco ahead of the kingdom’s planned sale of a minority stake in an initial public offering.

The supply cut has helped boost oil prices this year to $73 a barrel, the highest since November 2014. Oil began a slide from above $100 – a price that Saudi Arabia endorsed in 2012 – in mid-2014 when growing supply from rival sources such as U.S. shale began to swamp the market. But the kingdom wants the rally to go further. Two industry sources said a desired crude price of $80 or even $100 was circulated by senior Saudi officials in closed-door briefings in recent weeks.” (source)

Some OPEC nations and their allies have pushed for the extension of the output curbs beyond  2018 and up to the middle of  2019, Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said last month in Baghdad.  (source)

But things are going well for Russia, China, and Qatar.

Bilateral relations between Russia and Qatar have been blossoming lately. This is very likely related to the blockade imposed by Qatar’s Arab neighbors. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, who collectively imposed a unilateral blockade on Qatar on June 5, cutting diplomatic ties and closing their land, air, and sea borders over Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism.

In response to the blockade, Qatar, the world’s top producer of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), diversified and expanded their opportunities and opened the door to tens of billions in income by selling LNG to China. They are planning on increasing production by 30% by 2024 to meet the demand of the Asian market. China has stepped up to do more business with tiny Qatar in other areas as well. (source)

Old alliances are dissolving and new ones are being created

Plans are being made. Are we just one more hurricane away from losing more of our domestic oil and gas production? Are global geopolitical tensions where they were in the 1970’s?

No, not yet, but there isn’t a lot of margin for error as the world plays a risky game.

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca</e

The Qatari Teeterboard of Washington

More than 100 days of conflict around Qatar have passed and, as they say, it is now there. All the efforts of a number of countries to resolve the conflict peacefully by means of negotiations between the parties concerned have not yet yielded concrete results. Not the least role in this was played by the inconsistent, not enough professional policy of the Washington administration in this important region of the world. And there are a lot of examples.

The attack on Doha began immediately after the “incorruptible” Donald Trump, laden with rich gifts, left Riyadh. After that, the Saudis, who understood that they could now do as they pleased, decided to put Qatar in its place and make it play completely according to the Saudi rules. Initially, Washington also started talking, though without mentioning names, about the sponsors of terrorists. However, it was understood that the issue was with Qatar and its policy in Syria, which had been suffering for a number of years from terrorists. But then, the US backtracked and started talking about a peaceful resolution to the Qatari conflict. At the time the President of the United States tirelessly scribbled comments on Twitter, condemning Qatar’s actions, US Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Doha to express his support for the Emir. The US administration also approved the sale to Qatar of F-15 fighter aircraft worth an estimated USD12 billion. This is apparently in order to repulse the planned Riyadh attempt at the very beginning of the conflict of the “brotherly” occupation of the neighboring emirate.

At the same time, Britain has decided to demonstrate its support for the emirate, which has been in the orbit of the British foreign policy for many decades. In Doha, British Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon, with whom Head of the Ministry of Defense of Qatar Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah held successful negotiations, was received with pomp. During the meeting, the parties discussed regional developments and bilateral military cooperation, including the fight against terrorism. In addition, an agreement was signed on military cooperation that provides for the purchase of 24 Typhoon fighters from Great Britain. In other words, the Qatar Emir hastened to strengthen ties for certain purchases of military equipment with the United States and Great Britain.

However, concerns about the crisis around Qatar continue to grow in the White House, as reported by the Washington Post with reference to sources in the Washington administration. “We invested a lot of money there,” it states, quoting a White House representative. “Is it acceptable that the American business starts telling us about the cancellation of their contracts because of the situation in the [Persian] Gulf?” And, so that no one doubts, the newspaper emphasizes that the US administration is aware of the progress of Doha in the fight against terrorism.

Well, what about Qatar and his young Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani? How did he behave in such a difficult situation? The Emir quite calmly accepted all the charges that were being leveled against Qatar, and afterwards also rejected them quietly, stating that he would not allow anyone to interfere in the internal and external affairs of the independent emirate. And that no one should be tempted to want to occupy the emirate, as was the case of Bahrain in its time, he then forced the deployment of a Turkish military contingent in the emirate in the framework of earlier agreements on the establishment of a Turkish military base in that country. In addition, the Qatari military, together with the Turks, conducted maneuvers to repel the external threat.

Global media outlets reported that Saudi Arabia was close to “conquering” Qatar, as evidenced by the leakage of electronic messages allegedly written by UAE Ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba. In his correspondence with former American diplomat Elliott Abrams, Yousef Al Otaiba notes: “The seizure of Qatar will solve all problems. Literally. And the Saudi King Abdullah, a few months before his death in January 2015, was close to doing something similar with Qatar.”

However, if the establishment of a Turkish base on the peninsula is only now being planned, the powerful Al Udeid Air Base, which is the most important platform for US operations in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, has been around for a very long time. This base is one of several American strongholds in the Persian Gulf, and is intended, including for operations against Iran, if they arise. In mid-September, the Emir visited the base, was photographed with United States soldiers in front of military aircraft, and met with high-ranking U.S. officials. State media published a stencil poster by Sheikh Ta’mim depicting an image that is now perceived in Doha as a sign of support for the ruler in the midst of the boycott. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Americans “considered the issue of joint military cooperation and mutual cooperation between the two countries in the fight against terrorism,” the state news agency of Qatar reports.

It may be recalled that there are about 10,000 United States military personnel in Qatar, most of them located at the large Al Udeid Air Base located south of the country’s capital, Doha. The capital is home to the most advanced operational base of the United States Central Command. For comparison, military experts estimate Qatar’s own military power at about 11,800 troops. This is one of the smallest armies in the region. Thus, the United States has sufficient military forces here to fully monitor and influence any changes in the political system.

However, to somewhat soften the pro-Qatari position, representative of the Central Command of the US troops, Air Force Colonel John Thomas, stated that there had been no substantive negotiations. According to him, US bases often host the leaders of the countries in which they are located. But, for some reason, in this case, the visit took place at the time of the aggravation of relations between Qatar and other Arab countries and when Washington had decided to take certain measures to resolve the conflict.

Having decided to demonstrate the strength of his regime even at such a difficult time, the Emir of Qatar left the emirate in the care of his government and paid a brief visit to Turkey, France and Germany. Incidentally, these visits brought additional benefits to the Qatari, since in all these countries, their leaders covertly support Doha position. For example, according to a statement from the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the lifting of the embargo from Qatar. After a meeting with the Qatari leader, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel remarked, “We observe with concern that even a hundred days after the beginning of this conflict, no options for its resolution are yet in sight.” The German leader also added that Germany supports the mediation efforts of Kuwait and the United States to resolve the Qatari crisis. The official information on the outcome of the meeting in Turkey, which was held behind closed doors, differs in the absence of the public perception of any details of the talks. Be as it may, the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News believes that much of the conversation was devoted to finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis between the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Having considered all the above facts, it can be concluded that at the moment, the so-called Qatar crisis has moved into a permanent state, where neither party has neither a superiority nor a concrete solution. The West so far is fully satisfied with this state of affairs, as additional military procurement could be imposed on the countries of the region, as well as in the time necessary for the West to settle this contrived conflict. There is no doubt, however, that Donald Trump will suffice to say a few words, and there will be no trace of the strained state of affairs between the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.

Victor Mikhin, a corresponding member of RANS, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Qatar: The New Victim of “Regime Change” Agenda?

Some recent development have shown in unequivocal terms that the Gulf crisis is far from a negotiated end; rather the geo-political fault-lines it has caused seem to have hardened into new regional configuration. That mutual negotiation wasn’t enough to settle the crisis between the two primary players, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, became evident during and after the recent telephone conversation leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia had. While Qatar’s emir expressed his willingness to engage in negotiations, the aftermath of the call and the Saudi reaction proved that the House of Saud wanted to prolong the conflict. This is pretty evident from the way Saudi Arabia announced that it was suspending any further talks with Qatar, and a chief adviser to the royal court in Riyadh accused Tamim and his father, Hamad Bin Khalifa, of spreading unrest and terror in the region, branding the latter as “Gaddafi of the Gulf”, needing to be surgically removed from power and replaced by a more amicable ruler. The question, therefore, is: will the “Gaddafi of the Gulf” meet the same fate as the “Gaddafi of Libya”? While we shall find it out sooner than later, what is clearly on the surface is that Qatar is on Saudia’s list of “regime change” agenda. And, preparations for it are already underway.

The September 14 conference, which is aimed at “bringing democracy” to Qatar, organized by Qatar opposition in London is an expressed and overt formation of “regime change.” Ironically speaking, the conference’s host is a British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski, who is a strong ally of Saudi Arabia—a country where democracy is not only considered ‘un-Islamic’, but even repulsive. The organizer of this conference is Khalid al-Hail, a former associate for Hamid bin Jassim, the ex-prime minister of Qatar. The purpose of this conference is to increase pressure on Qatar and to make it submit to the opposition’s demands. At least this is what the Saudi owned, Al-Arabiya’s assessment is.

According to it, “the London conference would increase international pressure on Qatar despite Doha spending huge sums of money to avoid further pressure. British MP Daniel Kaczynski said it was important for the UK to get to know and cooperate with Gulf allies to call on Qatar to make the necessary reforms and change its policies that have led to tension in the region.”

Khalid Al Hail, who sees the crisis over Qatar’s supposed support for terrorism and promotion of extremism as an opportunity to return the country, is accordingly playing his part in Saudia’s plot to bring “reformation” to Qatar i.e., de-throne the current leadership and replace it with someone who would owe his rule and his existence as a ruler to the pleasure of the House of Saud.

Information available on the conference’s website clearly states that global support is essential for bringing ‘change’ in Qatar. This is particularly the case as the presence of Turkish troops on Qatari soil is a key deterrent for any combined military action of the Qatar opposition to remove the current Emir. Therefore, the aim of the conference seems to be building international consensus around the idea of a new Emir in Doha. Who could the new Emir then be? It seems that the Saudis have already made a choice.

The first glimpse of the ruler-in-the-waiting was reported when Saudi Arabia’s King Salman hosted Abdullah Bin Ali Al Than, a largely unknown and rather mysteriously appearing Qatari royal, in the middle of August in his summer residence in Morocco. The meeting wasn’t important, but it was highly symbolic in terms of the kind of audience the little known royal was given and the reward he received in terms of ‘succeeding’ in terms of re-opening the Saudi border for Qatari pilgrimages for Hajj. The move, as is evident, is clearly aimed at elevating Abdullah’s status in Qatar and to cultivate him as ‘hand of the Saudi king’. The Saudi channel al-Arabiya wrote, in the same vain, that Abdullah’s ancestors are well known “for their good governance and administration of the country”—hence, suitable for the future of the country as a possible replacement for the current emir, who has been persistent, much to the disappointment of the Saudis, in refusing to yield.

While Abdullah, who is married to a Saudi and spends a lot of time in the kingdom, is basically a London-based businessman with commercial interests in the Gulf and lacks public support that would help propel him to power, his emergence, nonetheless, serves as a way of telling Qatari leaders and global powers that the crisis is far from over, and that the possibility of triggering internal crisis in Qatar is very much on the table.

Given the fact that an armed intervention of the kind Saudi Arabia made in Yemen, its other neighbour, seems not possible because of the involvement of Turkey in the crisis, there is nothing on the ground that seems to prevent the Saudis from working out an internal uprising in Qatar and then use Abdullah, whose grandfather and father ruled Qatar from 1913 to 1960, as the new Emir.

What, as such, has been termed as a policy of “royal sheikh-up” seems to the staging ground for a much bigger crisis in the Gulf than we have so far seen since this June, when Saudia Arabia and its principal allies in the region started Qatari boycott. Qatar has so far been successful in defying Saudia’s hegemonic impulses. And, from the Saudi perspective, if this defiance continues in the same manner, Saudi Arabia will end up facing yet another defeat after Yemen and Syria–hence, the initiation of “regime change” policy.

The key question, however, is: how will the Saudis convince the US, which has recently sold weapons worth billions of dollars to Qatar, to agree to a “regime change”? As far as the US position is concerned, it might agree as long as this change doesn’t disrupt its own interests in the region, for a passive and submissive Qatari emir will not be problem either for Saudi Arabia or the US. Plus the latter would still be able to earn billions by selling weapons and jets. Let’s, therefore, embrace for yet another “regime change” impact!

Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Qatar Formally Rejects Outrageous Saudi-Led Demands

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar, instituting a land, sea and air blockade, an undeclared act of war.

A baker’s dozen of outrageous demands were made to be rejected, not accepted by Qatar.

They include curbing ties with Iran, shutting down Al-Jazeera and other news outlets Qatar controls, ending military cooperation with Turkey, paying reparations to Riyadh and its rogue allies, among others – and comply in 10 days or they become invalid.

Time expires today, extended by 48 hours, but it didn’t matter. As expected, Qatar rejected the ultimatum, replying by handwritten letter to the four countries.

They plan to meet in Cairo this week to decide their next moves. It’s unclear if they’ll impose illegal sanctions or something harsher.

They’re evaluating Qatar’s response before deciding how to proceed. Its contents aren’t publicly known.

By phone on Sunday, Trump spoke separately with leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, discussing his “concerns about the ongoing dispute.”

According to the White House, he urged “unity in the region,” and cooperation in combating terrorism America and the rogue quartet support – without further elaboration.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Al Attiyah earlier said demands on his government were “meant to be rejected.”

Last Saturday, he offered “a proper condition for dialogue,” with no further explanation. In Riyadh, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel urged resolving things diplomatically.

What’s next is unknown so far. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said the four countries will shortly decide future steps in dealing with Qatar as well as “exchange points of view and evaluation of the existing international and regional contacts in this connection.”

Qatar indicated it won’t back down. In a video message, Al-Jazeera said “(w)e too have demands…We demand press freedom.”

Qatari Defense Minister al-Attiyah said his nation isn’t “easy to be swallowed by anyone…We stand ready to defend our country.”

With neither side backing down, resolving the dispute won’t come easily.

Jared Kushner ‘Sought $500 Million From Qatar for Skyscraper Bailout’

(MEE) — Jared Kushner, the son-in-law to US President Donald Trump and a senior White House adviser, sought a $500m investment from Qatar for a New York skyscraper shortly before the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and a host of other countries, according to an Intercept article on Monday.

The account raises suspicions that Trump’s foreign policy is related to the family’s business interests.

Citing unidentified sources that reportedly had knowledge of the proposed bailout, the Intercept reported that Kushner tried to shore up funding from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (HBJ) after the skyscraper’s value plummeted from the real estate crisis in 2008. Kushner had bought the building in 2007 – when he was 26 – for $500m out of his family’s pocket and $1.3bn in borrowed money.

However, the real estate crisis forced Kushner to sell off a sizeable chunk of their office space in the building as part of a financial package; but in order to pay back those who originally borrowed money, he must have $1.3bn by early next year. According to a New York Magazine report, if Kushner “can’t find some new scheme for refinancing and redeveloping the property by then, [he] will have cost his family half a billion dollars”.

After the election, investors appeared to be willing to bail out Kushner’s skyscraper fiasco.

HBJ reportedly agreed to invest $500m in the severely debt-ridden property as long as Kushner was able to raise the rest of the money, which he could do when he became a senior White House adviser, according to the Intercept article.

A Chinese company with ties to members of the country’s ruling party was also willing to shore up $400m in March, but had decided to back out in March over a “conflict of interest” that consisted of “a company with ties to the Chinese government going into [big] business with the family of a senior adviser to the American one”.

When the Chinese company exited, so did HBJ.

Months later in June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut off all air, land and sea links to Qatar. Trump sided with the four-nation coalition, saying that the tiny petro-chemical nation funded terrorism.

The Intercept reported that Kushner played a key role in the White House’s hardline stance against Qatar, but it did not establish a link whether Kushner’s role had anything to do with the failed skyscraper bailout.

By MEE staff / Republished with permission / Middle East Eye / Report a typo

Senator Corker Blocks Arms Sales to Gulf States Over Qatar Row

During his May visit to the Riyadh, Trump and the Saudi family dictatorship agreed to at least a $300 billion US arms sales deal with the kingdom over the next decade.

Because of the row between Riyadh, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt and Qatar, Senator Bob Corker (R. TN) blocked it until things are resolved, in a letter to Rex Tillerson, saying:

Saudi-led Gulf states “did not take advantage of the summit (with Trump) and instead chose to devolve into conflict…hurt(ing)” America’s regional agenda.

“(B)efore we provide any further clearances during the informal review period on sales of lethal military equipment to the GCC states, we need a better understanding of the path to resolve the current dispute and reunify the GCC.”

Major arms deals require preliminary approval by leaders of the House and Senate foreign relations committees – before the statuary 30-day congressional review process begins to approve or reject these deals.

Talks among the parties are deadlocked. Irreconcilable differences remain. A sweeping 13-point ultimatum by Saudi-led three Gulf states and Egypt would be unacceptable to any nation wishing to retain its sovereignty.

Qatar rejected them as “baseless and unacceptable.” On Tuesday, Riyadh said they’re “non-negotiable,” Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, saying:

“We made our point. We took our steps and it’s up to the Qataris to amend their behavior, and once they do, things will be worked out, but if they don’t they will remain isolated. They know what they have to do.”

US efforts to resolve the row so far failed. Qatar has been blockaded for three weeks. According to UAE spokesman Omar Ghobash, Doha hasn’t “respond(ed) positively to what we sent.”

Asked if the row could escalate to military conflict, he said “(n)ot from our side…We’ll cut all our ties with Qatar, economic, political, and even social…”

A July 3 deadline for Qatar to accept unacceptable demands is days away. Asked what happens if things aren’t resolved by then, Ghobash said “we’d no longer be interested in bringing Qatar back into the Gulf and Arab fold.”

Days earlier, White House press secretary Sean Spicer called the spat “a family issue (to be) work(ed) out (among) themselves.”

Tillerson called demands on Qatar “very difficult to meet.” US arms sales to the Gulf States is big business.

According to the Congressional Research Service, during the four-year 2012 – 2015 period, Riyadh bought $17 billion worth of weapons and munitions, Qatar $9.9 billion, Kuwait $4.4 billion, the UAE $4.2 billion, Oman $900 million, and Bahrain $300 million.

These are billions of dollars of reasons alone why Washington will pressure all sides to resolve things.

One Day Before The Saudi Ultimatum Expires, A Defiant Qatar Is "Ready To Face The Consequences"

Two days ago, when previewing the showdown in the Qatar "diplomatic quagmire", we reminded readers that "Qatar only has until July 3 to comply with the 10-day ultimatum of 13 demands imposed by the Saudi-led bloc", a list which the Saudis described as non-negotiable, with Riyadh"s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir saying Doha must “amend its behavior” or “remain isolated."

Fast forward to just one day before the Saudi ultimatum expires, when Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Al Thani said his nation is unwilling to concede to any demands that threaten its sovereignty or violate international law. The small but wealthy Gulf emirate said it was prepared "to let pass the deadline for complying with 13 demands set down by the bloc", including shutting down Al Jazeera and cutting back ties with Iran, Al Thani said in Rome quoted by Bloomberg, where he met the Italian foreign minister. 

“There is no fear from our direction. We are ready to face the consequences,” Al Thani said. “There is an international law that should be respected and not violated.”

And while Al Thani repeated that Qatar is willing to sit down and negotiate under the right circumstances, he repeated that the ultimatum issued June 23 was made to be rejected.

As a reminder, nearly a month ago, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the U.A.E and Egypt severed commercial, diplomatic and financial links with Qatar saying they were isolating the sheikdom over what they see as its tolerant attitude to Iran and support for Islamist groups, which is ironic since Saudi Arabia is widely acknowledged as the world"s premier supporter of offshore terrorism. The group’s demands also include Qatar severing relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and ending Turkey’s military presence in the country. On June 23, Qatar was given 10 days to respond.

Meanwhile, not mincing his words, Al Thani accused the blockading nations - it"s clear who he was referring to here - of themselves having ties to groups and individuals accused of terrorism.

“As for the countries that accuse Qatar of financing terrorism, they have the same problems as Qatar, more so, they are on top of the list in that area,” he said. “There are financial institutes in these countries involved in financing terrorist organization and financing terrorist operations in western countries.”

The coalition presented Qatar with its requirements to end the standoff after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the Saudi-led bloc to lay out its demands. In a statement on June 25, Tillerson conceded that Qatar would find it “very difficult” to comply with some of the requests. On June 27, during a visit in Washington, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir called the demands non-negotiable.

As previewing the outcome of the ultimatum, earlier this week Citi said that unless the demands are met by July 3 "then this situation is likely to get a lot worse before it gets any better."

Meanwhile, Citi added, there has been a continued lack of reaction from ‘the West’: there is also confusion as to the stance of key historical players in the Middle East, such as the UK and the US, who have either said very little – Trump once called Qatar a “haven for terrorism”, while Rex Tillerson has twice upbraided Saudi Arabia’s approach. Last Friday, a White House spokesman told the Guardian: “The United States is still accessing the list and we are in communication with all parties. As we have said, we want to see the parties resolve this dispute and restore unity among our partners in the region, while ensuring all countries are stopping funding for terrorist groups.”

* * *

And while the US is still trying to decide on whose side it wants to be in the ongoing conflict, Russia wasted no time and as Reuters reported yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had telephone discussions with the leaders of Qatar and Bahrain, stressing the need for diplomacy to end the dispute between Qatar and several other Arab states.

Moscow is trying to tread cautiously in the dispute, since it wants good relations with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Russia backs President Bashar al-Assad in the six-year-long Syria conflict and is close to Iran, which has fraught ties with the Saudis.

Moscow sold a stake in its state oil champion Rosneft to Qatar last year and has been coordinating oil output cuts with the Saudis as part of a global pact to lift oil prices.

The Kremlin, which announced the phone calls with the leaders of Qatar and Bahrain in two separate statements on its website on Saturday, did not say when they happened. It clarified that they happened on the initiative of Qatar and Bahrain.

"Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of political-diplomatic efforts aimed at overcoming differences of opinion and the normalization of the difficult situation that exists," said the statement on the talks between Putin and Qatar"s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

And the punchline: "the Russian and Qatari leaders also discussed cooperation between their countries in energy and investment." In other words, as the Gulf region copntinues to split itself apart, and the strategic role of the US in the region remains unclear, Russia is more than happy to step in and fill whatever power void has been created. We look forward to Russian hacker being blamed for yet another tactically prudent and rational move by the Kremlin.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Irreconcilable Differences

Both oil-rich countries are rogue states. They’re family dictatorships, state-sponsors of terrorism, guilty of high crimes against peace, defiant of rule of law principles.

Riyadh and its rogue allies (the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) want Doha transformed into a subservient vassal state, its resources exploited, its wealth stolen, perhaps regime change demanded next.

A sweeping 13-point ultimatum reads like post-WW I Versailles terms – unacceptable to any nation wishing to retain its sovereignty. Here’s the dirty baker’s dozen:

1. Curb diplomatic ties with Iran. Close its diplomatic missions. Expel members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. Agree to commerce and trade allowed by the JCPOA nuclear deal alone.

Both countries share a common natural gas field, its production and possible pipeline plans not likely to be abandoned.

2. Sever ties with terrorist organizations, not ones Qatar, Riyadh and its rogue allies support, just the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah.

Neither is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a legitimately elected part of Lebanon’s government.

3. Shut down Al-Jazeera, the Qatari owned, funded and operated propaganda service.

4. Shut down other news outlets Qatar funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

5. Expel Turkish forces from the country. End internal joint military cooperation.

6. Cease funding and supporting all groups and individuals designated by Riyadh and its rogue allies as terrorists.

7. Hand over alleged “terrorist figures” and other individuals wanted by Riyadh and its allies. Freeze their assets and provide information on their location, movements and finances.

8. Stop granting citizenship to individuals wanted by the Saudis and its allies. Stop alleged interference in their internal affairs. Revoke citizenship for individuals demanded by these countries.

9. Cease contractual relations with designated political opponents of the Saudi dictatorship and its rogue allies. Hand over all documents explaining contacts and relations with these groups and individuals.

10. Pay reparations to Riyadh and its allies for alleged loss of life and financial losses, the sum to be determined.

11. Consent to monthly audits for a year, quarterly for a second year, for the next decade Qatar to be monitored annually for compliance.

12. Ally with other Gulf States and other Arab nations politically, economically, militarily and socially – in line with a 2014 agreement with Riyadh.

13. Agree to all of the above in 10 days or the demands become invalid – no further elaboration on what’s next if Qatar refuses.

It’s unimaginable any country would accept these demands willingly. They amount to unacceptable unconditional surrender.

How Washington intends dealing with this situation remains to be seen. On Wednesday, Rex Tillerson said demands on Qatar should be “reasonable and actionable,” adding:

“We support” Kuwait acting as mediator, “and look forward to this matter moving toward a resolution.”

Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Thani earlier rejected interference in his country’s internal affairs.

Doha’s ambassador to Washington Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani stressed “Qatar has the right to chart its own course, without the interference of other nations, and that is what we can and will do. The door to the negotiating table will stay open.”

Riyadh and its rogue allies slammed it shut with their unacceptable demands. What comes next may further destabilize the region.

A Final Comment

In response to the 13-point ultimatum, Qatari communications office director Sheikh Saif al-Thani said the following:

“This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning. The illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism. It is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy.”

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it’s studying the demands before “prepar(ing) an appropriate response.”

It’s likely to be go to hell in diplomatic language.

Furious Qatar Balks At Saudi Ultimatum As UAE Warns Of "Parting Of Ways"

One day after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf ally states finally released a long-awaited, 10-day ultimatum containing 13 demands from Qatar as a precondition for the resumption of diplomatic ties and an end of Qatar"s economic and naval blockade, the small Gulf nation balked and said the ultimatum is neither "reasonable" nor "realistic", and infringes on its sovereignty and foreign policy. 

“This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning – the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy” said  Sheikh Saif Al Thani, director of Qatar’s government communications office, in a statement to Bloomberg.

As a reminder, the full list contained such demands as reducing diplomatic representation with Iran, shutting down the Turkish military base that is being established (Turkey has already balked at the threat), severing ties with terrorist organization, shutting down Al Jazeera and all affiliated channels, and so on. The demands are explicitly aimed at dismantling Qatar"s two-decade-old interventionist foreign policy, which has reflected the clout generated by its vast natural gas and oil wealth but incensed conservative Arab peers over its alleged support for Islamists they regard as mortal threats to their dynastic rule.

Al Thani dismissed the demands and said that while the list is "currently under review", it is only “out of respect for our brothers in Kuwait” whose emissary delivered the Saudi-led demands Friday. Al Thani said that the demands do not meet the US and UK criteria for “reasonable and realistic measures.”

Meanwhile Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it will soon issue an official response, one which we doubt Saudi Arabia will like as the bid/ask in the early stage of the negotiations is being established. 

“The State of Qatar is currently studying this paper, the demands contained therein and the foundations on which they were based, in order to prepare an appropriate response,” the ministry told Channel News Asia.

On Friday, Qatar"s news outlet Al Jazeera responded to Saudi demands that it be shut down as part of the "renormalization" process. “We in the network believe that any call for closing down Al Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress people"s right to information,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

“By accepting those demands and conditions Qatar will be subject to international accountability and violating its commitments regarding human rights conventions,” Qatar"s National Human Rights Committee said in a statement cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, a senior United Arab Emirates official told Reuters what would happen if Qatar refused to comply with the Arab ultimatum, saying there would be a "parting of ways."

"The alternative is not escalation, the alternative is parting of ways, because it is very difficult for us to maintain a collective grouping," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters.

Gargash urged Qatar to meet the demands. “It would be wiser that [Qatar] deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors or a divorce will take place,” Anwar Gargash said on Twitter in Arabic, adding, that “the crisis is profound.”

?????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????? ???????? ?????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ??????? ?????? ????.

— ?. ???? ????? (@AnwarGargash) June 23, 2017

He added that while diplomacy with Qatar remained a priority, that mediation efforts to resolve the dispute had been undermined by the public disclosure of the demands. "The mediators" ability to shuttle between the parties and try and reach a common ground has been compromised by this leak," he said. "Their success is very dependent on their ability to move but not in the public space."

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash

In other words, another attempt at a backdoor deal orchestrated by Saudi Arabia failed because someone leaked something, only this time it didn"t involve Trump being a KGB secret agent.

Gargash said that if Qatar fails to comply within the 10-day timeline set out in the ultimatum, it will be isolated. But he did not make clear what more could be done since the four Arab nations have already cut diplomatic relations with Doha and severed most commercial ties.

Despite the verbal assurance that there will be no further escalation, Qatar is preparing for the worst, as two contingents of Turkish troops with columns of armored vehicles have arrived in Doha since the worst crisis among Gulf Arab states for years erupted on June 5. Gargash said the Turkish deployment was a "meaningless escalation" and he hoped Ankara would act in a "reasonable way" adding that "we hope that Turkey prioritizes the interest of the Turkish state and not partisan ideology," Gargash said.

The uncompromising positions adopted by both sides leave little prospect for a quick end to the crisis. The sanctions have disrupted Qatar"s main import routes by land from Saudi Arabia and by sea from big container ships docked in the United Arab Emirates. But Qatar so far has avoided economic collapse by quickly finding alternative channels and says its huge financial reserves will meet any challenges.

* * *

Finally, the last wildcard in this diplomatic spat remains the US, whose often conflicting flipflopping on Qatar is a topic all in itself: last week Rex Tillerson asked that a list of Saudi demands be produced and sure enough, he got what he wanted which however, may not be what the former Exxon CEO had in mind.

After Tillerson pressed all sides to resolve the dispute, the president praised Saudi Arabia’s move on Twitter, citing Qatar’s history of “funding Radical Ideology.” On June 9, Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia to ease what he called its “blockade,” only to have Trump, at a White House news conference hours later, say the move had been the right one. At the same time, the Defense Department made clear the importance of its base in Qatar, from which the U.S. conducts its air operations against Islamic State.

“The Saudis and the Emiratis certainly look like they feel empowered by Trump, and the Qataris look like they also felt empowered by the Defense Department,” said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a fellow who specializes in U.S.-Gulf relations at the Washington Institute. She said that only increased “the chance that both sides of the conflict will continue to dig in their heels.”

Now Tillerson is taking the lead. As Bloomberg reports, on Tuesday, his spokeswoman said the U.S. was “mystified” about why the coalition hadn’t listed its demands of the tiny nation, saying the U.S. suspected that the dispute was more about long-simmering tensions between them and not focused on Qatar’s funding of terrorism.  Tillerson’s efforts to encourage a resolution has been helped in recent days by President Donald Trump staying quiet after earlier comments undercut his secretary of state.

The Saudi demands were “a halfhearted response to U.S. pressure,” said Rob Malley, who coordinated Middle East policy for President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. “The real question is if whether it’s an opening gambit starting from a maximalist position or whether from Saudi Arabia’s and the Emirates’ point of view, it’s not time to negotiate.” Qatar’s foreign minister said on June 19 that his country wouldn’t bargain away what it sees as its sovereign rights and called on the Saudi alliance to conduct negotiations in a “civilized way,” after first lifting the blockade. He said Qataris were united behind their emir.

* * *

But wait, there"s more, and as we reported last week, the already convoluted situation became even more complex when the U.S. and Qatar signed a deal last week to sell as many as 36 F-15 fighter jets to Qatar. And on Thursday, Qatar’s state-backed airline, Qatar Airways Ltd., announced it would seek to buy a stake of as much 10 percent in American Airlines Group Ltd. American’s CEO scoffed at the move as “puzzling at best and concerning at worst.”

Finally, all of this takes place just days after the shocking Saudi shake up in which the Saudi King unexpectedly announced he was stripping the current Crown Prince, his nephew Mohamed bin Nayef (MBF), of all titles and obligations, and replacing him with his belligerent son, and advocate of more military intervention in the region, Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), a move which according to Petromatrix means that "with MBS now having greater control of Saudi Arabia and with Jared Kushner having a large control of the White House it is not really a question of if but rather of when a new escalation with Iran starts."

With so many moving pieces in the Qatar crisis, anyone who is confident they have it "all figured out" will be wrong.

Persian Gulf Feud

Riyadh accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism ignores the pernicious regional infestation of Saudi-supported extremist Wahhabism, the ideology connected to ISIS and likeminded groups.

Both countries support regional terrorist groups, both US allies, despite mixed messages from Washington on Qatar.

Secretary of State Tillerson called for “no further escalation by the parties in the region, (urging) calm and thoughtful dialogue” to resolve things, asking other Gulf states to ease their blockade, citing humanitarian reasons ignored by Washington in all its wars.

Qatar is home to the Pentagon’s Central Command, thousands of US military personnel stationed in the country. During his visit to Riyadh, Trump met with emir al-Thani, saying Washington’s “relationship (with the country) is extremely good.”

On Friday, he tone changed, calling Qatar a longtime “funder of terrorism at a very high level…Stop teaching hate. Stop the killing,” he said.

The diplomatic standoff continues. Iran offered Qatar use of its southern ports to import needed goods. The tiny Gulf state is import-dependent.

On Wednesday, an Iranian cargo plane delivered tons of supplies to Qatar. National Agricultural Products Federation of Iran president Reza Nourani said talks are underway to export food to the nation.

It’s currently sending around 50 tons daily to the region. Some of it could be diverted to Qatar. Iranian ships can supply much more of what’s needed.

Turkey’s Erdogan pledged support for the al-Thani regime, one rogue leader supporting another.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt, one of the rival Libyan regimes, the Saudi-supported Yemeni one, and the Maldives cut ties with Qatar, imposing a land and sea blockade.

On Thursday, they designated 59 individuals and 12 entities in the country as terrorist organizations.

Qatar is Turkey’s staunchest regional ally. It plans building a military base in the country to confront unnamed “common enemies,” according to Turkish ambassador Ahmet Demirok.

Ankara is already allied with Qatar militarily, small numbers of its forces in the country. Plans are for many more to be deployed.

Gulf states welcomed Trump’s criticism of Qatar. It has nothing to do with supporting terrorism, no nations more supportive than America, its key NATO allies, Israel, the Saudis and other regional rogue states.

Part of the dispute is over Qatari/Iranian ties and its alleged Muslim Brotherhood support. A larger issue is over control of regional oil, gas, pipelines supplying it and their routes.

If the region wasn’t resource rich, it wouldn’t suffer from endless US-led wars. Syria is targeted for regime change to eliminate an Israeli rival and isolate Iran – ahead of longstanding plans to replace its government with pro-Western puppet rule.

Will Saudi forces invade Qatar to transform the state into a Riyadh satellite? Is Trump signed on to the scheme?

Is another regional war likely besides those raging in Iraq, Syria and Yemen?

Institute for Gulf Affairs director Ali al-Ahmed believes it’s coming. He “received reports of Saudi military movements near the Qatari border” days earlier.

“They are preparing,” he said. If Saudi terror-bombing of Yemen eases, it would indicate a likely move against Qatar, he said.

“I have it on good authority that Trump has already told the Saudis he would have no objection,” he explained. Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain will support the action, he added.

Riyadh wants Qatar reduced to satellite state status, along with control over its resources and cash reserves, said al-Ahmed.

“Saudi Arabia was a state founded on the principle of robbery and looting. That is what the al-Saud originally were: They were desert raiders and looters. They were desert pirates. Now they desperately need money again,” he explained.

If he’s right, Saudi war on Qatar with US and regional support could happen any time.

America First? Gov’t Claims No Funds to Stop US Nuclear Waste Leak, While Giving Billions to Dictators

Radioactive waste still flows “freely” into the Columbia River from the U.S. Superfund site at Hanford — a situation desperately in need of remedy, given the number of civilians located nearby — yet the Trump Administration instead decided this week on a multi-billion dollar arms sale to authoritarian nations accused of actively funding terrorist groups.

News of the continuous leak arrived from U.S. EPA Project Manager Dennis Faulk during a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board, which Courthouse News reports,

“[C]ame as part of a five-year review of cleanup measures taken at the Superfund site. Officials with the EPA and the Department of Energy said at a meeting Wednesday that the review showed most of the cleanup actions at Hanford were properly ‘protective,’ meaning the public was shielded from the worst of the site’s estimated 500 million gallons of potentially radioactive waste.

“Radioactive sludge in shuttered reactors, contaminated soil in landfill sites and equipment that was once used to refine the uranium that fueled the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki were all properly contained, according to the report.”

But that information, welcome though it may be, comprised the rosiest news — since, on a darker note, Mike Cline, director of the Department of Energy’s Soil and Groundwater Division, asserted hexavalent chromium– and strontium-90-tainted groundwater has been “flowing freely” into the Columbia.

Concerns for the stretch of river abutting the Superfund site, called Hanford Reach — designated a national monument 17 years ago by then-President Bill Clinton — were stirred because the area faces potential review by Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for a possible revocation of its status and, thus, evaporation of funds for amelioration.

To protect the Columbia River and surrounding environs by containing the radioactive water, agencies sought to construct a “permeable reactive barrier” and build stronger wells — but the Department of Energy and EPA face a cut under Trump’s proposed budget of around $120 million.

Cleanup of Hanford already languishes from a minimal budget — cuts that deep, officials asserted, could paralyze the imperative program.

Worse, Trump and his administration have been preoccupied with procuring multi-billion dollar deals on arms and military equipment with a pair of known human rights-abusing, terrorist-funding governments — Saudi Arabia and Qatar — complicated infinitely by on ongoing feud between the two on the topic of, unironically, funding and supporting terrorists.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to reject a bill blocking $110 billion in total arms sale to the Saudis — an authoritarian kingdom and apparent Teflon-coated ally to the U.S. — criticism of whose human rights abuse and double-dealing with nefarious entities never negates the American government’s lustful need for imported oil.

At present, growing public awareness harpoons the House of Saud and its government for an effective blockade of Yemen — which some intone could constitute a violation of international law — as well as for a persistent bombing campaign, both of which have left innocent civilians in dire need of assistance with scores dying of malnutrition.

Qatar was recently skewered by the Saudis — and a subsequent succession of Gulf Cooperation Council states — for support of militants fighting in Yemen and elsewhere.

Trump, aligning with the Ally Who Can Do No Wrong, sided with the Saudis in excoriating only Qatar for being a terrorist nation; yet — nearly in the same breath — proceeded to green light a $12 billion arms deal with the Defense Department.

However — and, again, unironically — the Saudi and Qatari governments both featured prominently in documents revealed by Wikileaks from a cache leaked from Hillary Clinton’s emails from 2015 for being known funders of the menacing Islamic State.

Pots, meet kettles.

In other words, despite the U.S. State Department and associates of Clinton, having long been cognizant of the active funding of ISIL by the Saudis and Qataris, the administration of Donald Trump rewarded each of the disputing states with billions in sales of yet more weapons.

Elucidation on the ironic morass can be gleaned from each of the three nations’ fealty to oil and the business of fossil fuels than can ever be derived from a logical analysis attempting to justify massive exchanges of weapons and cash and the training and support of terrorists otherwise ambivalent to all three.

All of this political, economic, and industry wrangling — much of which occurred to the condemnation by the American public as wasteful, if not foolish, spending — ignores the offensive lack of budget monies for sites like the Hanford Reach and many others.

It’s a veritable guarantee the heft of the U.S. populace would champion the need to contain radioactive, noxious contaminants inside the nation’s borders over that to supply known terrorist-friendly countries with untenable arms deals.

But that’s precisely what Trump and his ilk have decided — and, it appears, the rest of us will instead be left to collectively shrug our shoulders. This is, after all, egregiously characteristic of Washington’s wearisome business-as-usual.

Right After Accusing Qatar of Funding Terrorism, Trump Gives Them $12 BILLION in Weapons

Less than one week after publicly reprimanding Qatar, President Trump appears to have changed his tune, as he signed off on the sale of $12 billion in weapons to the country he referred to as a “funder of terrorism.” This move, in Trump’s own stance, makes him a de facto funder of terrorism now.

Qatari Defense Minister Khalid Al Attiyah met with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday, to sign one part of the deal that is supposed to result in the purchase of over $21 billion in U.S. weapons overall.

Al Attiyah called the agreement one that would help Qatar help the U.S. combat “violent extremism.”

“We are pleased to announce today the signing of the letter of offer and acceptance for the purchase of the F-15QA fighter jets, with an initial cost of $12 billion dollars,” Al Attiyah said in a statement. “We believe that this agreement will propel Qatar’s ability to provide for its own security while also reducing the burden placed upon the United States military in conducting operations against violent extremism.”

In a statement, the Pentagon claimed that the sale “will give Qatar a state of the art capability and increase security cooperation and interoperability between the United States and Qatar.”

Meshal Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the U.S., posted a photo of the signing on Twitter, and noted that the deal includes “the purchase of the F-15QA fighter jets creating 60,000 new jobs in 42 states across the United States.”

Qatar signs LOA for the purchase of the F-15QA fighter jets creating 60,000 new jobs in 42 states across the United States pic.twitter.com/tnOAC3KGma

— Meshal Hamad AlThani (@Amb_AlThani) June 14, 2017

The timing of the sale is interesting, given the fact that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen and the Maldives all announced that they were severing diplomatic relations with Qatar on June 5.

READ MORE:  Documentary Crew Finds Trove of ISIS Docs Detailing Illegal Oil Trade with US Ally

While Saudi Arabia’s state-run news agency initially accused Qatar of “harboring a multitude of terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to create instability in the region,” Qatar’s foreign ministry called the measure “unjustified,” and said it was “based on claims and allegations that have no basis in fact.”

Trump appeared to be fully in support of the decision at the time. He even told reporters at the White House last Friday that he “helped plan the Qatar action with Arab leaders” after his recent trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“The nation of Qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” Trump said. “So we had a decision to make, do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action. We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided … the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding.”

The practice of condemning a country for a certain action, and then giving it access to the supplies it needs to continue carrying out the same action you just condemned it for, is not new for the United States, and it’s not new for Trump.

As The Free Thought Project has reported, Trump’s current support for Saudi Arabia is a far cry from his rhetoric before he was in office.

When Trump was on the campaign trail, he spoke out in support of holding Saudi Arabia responsible for its involvement in 9/11. He promised that if he was elected, Americans would “find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center.”

The fact is, when it comes to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.S. condemning one another for funding terrorism, it is nothing more than a game of “the pot calling the kettle black.” After all, even Hillary Clinton admitted that the three governments were complicit in providing “clandestine financial and logistic support” to ISIS.

READ MORE:  Breaking: French and German Intelligence Services Knew Paris Attack Was Coming a Month Ago

To Bypass Food Embargo, Qatar Will Pay $8 Million To Airlift 4,000 Cows

Yesterday we reported that as the Qatar crisis continues with no resolution in sight, in an act of generosity toward its distressed Gulf neighbor, Iran dispatched four cargo planes of food to Qatar and plans to provide 100 tonnes of fruit and vegetable every day. Qatar has also been holding talks with Iran and Turkey to secure food and water supplies after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut links, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.

However, any stopgap measures implemented so far are not nearly enough to compensate for all the food imports lost as a result of the gulf blockade. So, for the nation with the highest GDP/capita in the world, where money is largely not an object, an ingenious solution has emerged.

Call it the biggest bovine airlift in history, as Bloomberg puts it. Because while the "showdown between Qatar and its neighbors has disrupted trade, split families and threatened to alter long-standing geopolitical alliances", it has prompted one enterprising Qatari businessman to fly 4,000 cows to the Gulf desert in an act of resistance and opportunity to fill the void left by a collapse in the supply of fresh milk.

The reason for the dramatic "solution" to the millk embargo is that most of Qatar"s fresh milk and dairy products, meant for Doha’s more than 1 million residents, came from Saudi Arabia up until a week ago. That supply was cut off after the kingdom and its allies cut transport links with "a country that spends $500 million a week to prepare stadiums and a metro before the soccer World Cup in 2022."

According to Bloomberg"s calculations, it will take as many as 60 flights for Qatar Airways to deliver the 590-kilogram beasts that Moutaz Al Khayyat, chairman of Power International Holding, bought in Australia and the U.S. “This is the time to work for Qatar,” he said. In addition to the abovementioned airlifted Turkish dairy goods and Iranian fruit and vegetables, there’s also a campaign to buy home-grown produce. Signs with colors of the Qatari flag have been placed next to dairy products in stores. One sign dangling from the ceiling said: “Together for the support of local products.”

“Our government has made sure we have no shortages and we are grateful for that. We have no fear. No one will die of hunger.”

“It’s a message of defiance, that we don’t need others,” said Umm Issa, 40, a government employee perusing the shelves of a supermarket before taking a carton of Turkish milk to try.

Only you do, and those who provide the much needed milk will get even richer than they already are.

For Al Khayaat, whose main business is a construction firm that built Qatar’s biggest mall, the cow-a-drop may be a slam dunk business decision. He has been expanding the company"s agricultural business at a farm 50 kilometers north of Doha. Food security is part of Qatar’s government strategy to steer the economy away from petrodollars, known, like in Saudi Arabia, as “Vision 2030.” And what better way to aggressively grow that business than at a time when it is your countrymen"s patriotic duty to buy your goods.

On a site covering the equivalent of almost 70 soccer fields, new grey sheds line two strips of verdant grass in the desert with a road running through the middle up to a small mosque. It produces sheep milk and meat and there were already plans to import the cows by sea. Then Qatar was ostracized, so the project was expedited.

Fresh milk production will start by the end of the month rather than September and will eventually cover a third of Qatar’s demand by mid-July, Al Khayyat told Bloomberg at his office in Doha. Facilities for the Holstein cows are ready, though the company will take a hit on the shipping cost for the animals, which increased more than five times to $8 million.

Which amounts to $2,000 per cow. At that price, it was not immediately clear if the cows would fly business or first class.

Gulf Crisis leaves open big cracks in Saudia’s Islamic Military Alliance

The diplomatic spate, engulfing the Gulf States, have left wide open cracks in the otherwise all-Sunni house, led by Saudi Arabia. It appears that the Islamic Military Alliance (IMA) has set Qatar for itself as the first target, and that it will not stop short of bringing a regime change in Qatar in order for bringing the small Gulf state into the orbit of the big Gulf state. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have long been rivals and, despite Qatar’s small size, its great wealth and vast gas reserves have given it great influence, enabling it to challenge the House of Saud’s own hegemonic pursuits. It backed the Arab Spring with its wealth and media outlets, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Gaza, and it seems to be following a policy in other regional conflict zones, such as Yemen and Syria, that runs counter to the one being followed by other major Gulf countries.

The cutting of ties has not happened overnight.  The US President Trump’s unqualified support for the Sunni monarchies during his two-day visit to Riyadh emboldened the kingdom to start a second and, it hopes, final round in its confrontation with Qatar. While Trump himself may not have touched this issue, his stance does seem to have been read by the House of Saud to as enabling them to move against Qatar though it is home to a major US base.

Following Trump’s visit, a war of words had broken out between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with Qatar’s emir calling Iran as “force for stability.” On May 25, Saudi Arabia and United Aran Emirates decided to block the websites of Qatar – including al-Jazeera – over ‘incendiary’ statements about Iran and Israel posted on Qatar’s state-run news agency. While Qatar refuted having posted such stuff and alleged that its website had been hacked, there is no gainsaying that Qatar’s standing in the region is becoming thornier for Saudi Arabia, particularly for the aspiring king, Prince Muhammad bin Salman who, as some reports have indicated, cannot afford another failure after the Yemen debacle.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned Qatar that maintaining its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood might be costly, and that Trump was considering classifying the organization as a terrorist group. The Qataris ignored the warning, refusing to sever their ties with the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian armed forces removed from power in a coup d’état three years ago. While it is difficult to say that Qatar supports these organizations out of some ideological affinity, it cannot be denied that the tiny Gulf state does use these platforms for exerting its own influence in the Arab world.

For Qatar, severing relations with Iran just because the House of Saud wants it marks a policy conundrum that it can ill-afford in the wake of its own regional ambitions. The Riyadh summit was, as such, a disappointing show for the emir of Qatar, who was to rebuff the commitments made there only two days after the summit.

Speaking at military ceremony, which was broadcast on state-run television, the emir not only spoke of excellent relations with Iran, describing the Iranians as “stabilizers” of the region who “cannot be ignored.” The emir disputed the implication of the US position at the Riyadh summits, saying: “Nobody has the right to accuse of us of terrorism, just because they declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group or because they are not ready to tolerate the kind of resistance embraced by Hamas or Hezbollah.” And he took a swipe at Saudi Arabia, saying: “The real danger lies in the behaviour of certain governments which have bred terrorism themselves, by adopting an extreme version of Islam.”

This was followed by emir of Qatar’s call to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to congratulate him on his re-election, setting alarm bells ringing throughout the Arabian peninsula, thus opening cracks in the united front the ‘Arab World’ has been trying to present to Iran – cracks which the Iranian government is sure to try to widen.

What Impact can the boycott can leave on Qatar?

The extent of this impact can be gauged by the fact that a number of important allies of Saudi Arabia, particularly Pakistan, have blatantly refused to cut off ties with Qatar. What it shows is that the cut-off is likely to remain confined to the Gulf only.

Within the Gulf, however, this cut-off is likely to leave some impact. Saudi Arabia and the UAE accounted for roughly one third Qatar’s $1.05 billion of food imports in 2015. Much of the imports, especially dairy products, came over the Saudi land border. As food trucks reportedly lined up at the closed Saudi border with Qatar, Iran’s Fars news agency quoted Reza Nourani, chairman of the union of exporters of agricultural products, as saying that Iran could supply the Gulf state with what it needs. Mr. Nourani said it would take 12 hours for shipments from Iran to reach Qatar by sea.

While the cut-off has left some impact on some aspects of Qatari economy, the greatest impact is likely to be felt by the Qatar Airways, working in Qatar’s favour is the fact that the Gulf state’s main source of revenue, its oil and gas exports, remain untouched by the economic sanctions. Qatar, the world’s largest LNG supplier, maintains access to international shipping route even if Qatar-bound vessels and ships leaving the Gulf state are barred from entering the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.

Accordingly, buyers of Qatari gas have also been assured of continuing supply. Japan’s JERA Co, the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, said in a statement that Qatar-gas had informed it that the crisis in the Gulf would not impact LNG supplies. Besides it, the United Arab Emirates, which has cut off diplomatic ties, has not included the import of gas from Qatar to its list of sanctions, thus leaving vital areas untouched and biting Qatar only to the extent that it doesn’t backfire on UAE itself. Dubai, the centre of tourist attraction in the region, depends on Qatar for 40 percent of its gas imports.

In this regard, an important question to be considered here is related to the course of action the United States adopts in this crisis. Were the US to continue to support Qatar in matters related to the 2022 Soccer World Cup and those related to the US troops in the country, Saudi cut off might lose its importance sooner than later. However, under Donald Trump, who recently received Saudia’s highest civil award, the degree of protection it can expect from the US is uncertain, at least this stage.

While it is highly unlikely that the US might cut off, such a decision would only exacerbate the crisis and cause more cracks in the edifice of IMA, forcing a number of other countries, such as Oman and Kuwait, to re-think their stand vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia and its regional plans.

Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Persian Gulf – What is Happening in the Region?

The Persian Gulf region continues to surprise and keep the entire world community on its toes. Yet again, a dangerous tension in relations between a number of countries and Qatar has developed. Six Arab countries, namely Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Maldives, have announced their severance of diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations such as Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, as well as destabilizing the internal situation in the Arab States.

In addition, except for Oman, member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council have interrupted air and land communication with their neighbour. If you look at the map, it becomes clear that, with the exception of its maritime borders with Iran, Qatar is literally under siege.

At the same time, the Yemeni government has accused Qatar of supporting Yemeni radical groups.

The interim Libyan government has also announced its severance of diplomatic relations with Doha. In an interview with Sky News Arabia, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Libya Mohammed Al-Deri stressed that Qatar had been the main source of arms supply to the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist armed groups since 2012, and was a threat to the national security of the Arab world.

It should be recalled that this small Emirate is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). For example, in 2015, Qatar exported 106.4 billion cubic meters of LNG, with another 19.8 billion cubic metres through natural gas pipelines. The Arab state currently ranks third in the world after Russia and the United States in gas reserves. According to BP, in 2015 alone, gas production in Qatar amounted to 181 billion cubic meters per year, with domestic consumption of 19 billion cubic meters. Being an OPEC country, Qatar produces 620 thousand barrels per day. If in an attempt to protect their country from outside interference, the government of Qatar decided to withdraw from the agreement with OPEC to limit oil production, or ceased to comply with it, in the medium term, this may lead to an increase in the supply of oil on the market and a fall in its price. After all, events in the region traditionally always affect oil prices, and the discord between the large manufacturers may possibly intensify the downward pressure on prices, since the OPEC member states have to maintain unity under the terms of an agreement to cut production.

In other words, under pressure from Saudi Arabia, a number of Arab countries have accused Doha of conniving in and financing terrorist activities, notwithstanding the fact that the international community has long known about these allegations. If the plain truth were to be told, Riyadh is currently fighting at least two wars: indirectly in Syria by destroying the Syrian people, and by direct aggression in neighbouring Yemen, where Saudi “hawks,” in the absence of even a primordia Yemeni air defence, are brazenly shooting civilians from the air – women, children and the elderly.

Many in the world are asking a number of legitimate questions on Saudi terrorist activities in the region. For example, could gangs of mercenaries and terrorists have been tormenting the Syrian people for many years and doing terrible things without the financial, military and political support of Riyadh? Of course not. And if the innocent blood of civilians is still pouring on Syrian land, the responsibility for these crimes should be borne by Riyadh, Doha and some other Arab monarchies of the Middle East region.

On the other hand, if we analyse the course of events, it turns out that the deterioration of the situation and its escalation began on the initiative of Riyadh after the visit of the President of the United States Donald Trump. Mr. Trump authorized the Saudi rulers’ sole discretion in their continued rule of the Arab world. Nevertheless, it is correct to say that it cost Riyadh a fortune to receive such authorization by winning off the President of “the most democratic country” Donald Trump. This is the Saudi regime that has established medieval laws in its kingdom that do not even smell of democracy, and it is only for mentioning this foreign word that the subjects of the king are imprisoned or publicly beheaded so that the others are dissuaded from perusing a foreign way of life.

Another question thus arises: why has Qatar got its head under the Saudi chopping block? The answer is quite simple. Wherever possible, Doha seeks to protect its own interests in defiance of the Saudi interests. For example, it is sponsoring its own terrorist group in Syria and is playing its own game in Yemen. But the main issue is that the Qatari ruler placed his main political bet on the European powers, with which he has established good economic and political relations. It is quite natural that Mr. Trump, who is somehow criticized for lack of experience and knowledge in conducting foreign policy, could not tolerate this, and during his visit to the Kingdom, made a “personal errand” to the king’s son Muhammad Ibn Salman to deal with Doha. And we are already seeing the first rounds of this “boxing match.”

However, not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. A number of the closest allies of Riyadh, namely Jordan, Oman and Kuwait (the latter two are members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf) have refused to follow the Saudi lead and preserve their national interests. In addition, and this is perhaps not quite the last fact, Qatar has supported Iran, which has maintained good relations with the small Emirate.

For example, the dispute between Qatar and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf began with the alleged hacking of the State News Agency. That time, the Agency gave a speech on behalf of the Emir in support of relations with Iran. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Emirate later said that the Agency’s website had been hacked. Despite this, the rulers of Saudi Arabia have not found these arguments convincing and, therefore, continue to assert that the Emir announced the normalization of relations with Tehran. In fact, Riyadh perceives it as a challenge to its leadership in the region, even as a betrayal, since, earlier, during a summit of the Gulf Arab states and the USA, on behalf of all the guests, the Saudis issued a message condemning the Iranian policy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the severance of diplomatic relations between six Arab countries and the Republic of Maldives with Qatar was their internal political affair. According to him, Russia is interested only in maintaining good relations with all states in the Middle East region.

It is quite clear that Qatar has become a scapegoat in the war against terrorism that must be used as a cover for all the Saudi shady affairs. On the other hand, it is also obvious that the leadership game has been accelerated on the Gulf region. In this match, Riyadh is determined not to surrender its positions under any conditions. Rather, it is seeking to harness the help of the United States to strengthen its foreign policy based on medieval ideas about life and the surrounding world.

Victor Mikhin, a corresponding member of RANS, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”