The continuing blockade of Qatar makes no sense

The continuing blockade of Qatar makes no sense:

"If state-backed newspapers in Riyadh are to be believed, the next chapter in the stand-off between Gulf states could see Saudi Arabia turn its tiny, gas-rich neighbour Qatar into an island. This would involve excavating a Suez-style canal on the land border between the two countries. To reinforce this topographical engineering, a dump for toxic waste would be planted in between. The story may well be apocryphal — the latest in a sustained propaganda campaign which has failed thus far to intimidate the Qatari emirate into bending to the will of rival dynasties. It is symptomatic nonetheless of how riven the Gulf states still are 10 months since Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates initiated a trade and diplomatic embargo on Qatar, to the detriment of all. Saudi Arabia has long resented the reluctance of the geographical minnow on its eastern flank to accept a shadow role. Instead, with the independent powers of patronage that Qatar has cultivated thanks to its prodigious gas reserves, the ruling al-Thani family have adopted a consistently maverick foreign policy stance. Qatar’s meddling in regional conflicts, its support for the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and the revolution in the Arab media engendered by the Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, have made it a wayward member of the club in the view of rival dynasties. They have not forgiven Qatar either for its wholehearted backing of Islamists in the uprisings that swept Syria, Libya and Egypt during the Arab Spring, when Saudi royals feared their own powers could come under threat."



'via Blog this'