Qatar vs. Arabia
Arab-Arab relations went through lots of difficulties and conflicts that were developed to a complete hostility and even worse, war and occupation. Reviewing the Qatari-Arab relationship; relationship with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tunisia was cracked up due to what I call ridiculous reasons.
Chirping outside the flock.
Jordan has recalled its ambassador at Doha because Qatar didn’t vote for the Jordanian nominee for UN Secretary-General Position who received the support of all Arab countries and the League of Arab States except of Qatar. Jordanian government tried to back its position by claiming that Qatar is treating Jordanians in a very terrible way.
At the beginning I didn’t buy this but a friend of mine who works in Qatar told me that this is correct and it is not new; he told me that it is harder for a Jordanian to go to work in Qatar than other nationalities, he added that the way they treat us is so mean and shallow unlike others. But even though I believe that our government over reacted, you can simply treat Qatar the same way it treats Jordan.
Hosting a controversial TV station.
The Qatari-Saudi relation is not going smoothly because of the Doha-based TV station AlJazeera, and yet another devastating decision ending the Tunisian diplomatic representation in Qatar also caused by AlJazeera. Tunisia decided to recall its ambassador at Doha because AlJazeera has run an interview with a Tunisian antagonist who encouraged for a “Civil Disobedience” in Tunisia through the TV station.
I believe that governments should handle the media in a wiser way, countries response shouldn’t be driven by a TV program or an article in some newspaper. It is so ridiculous to end a diplomatic relationship with another country based on a TV program on a station based on that country. What if AlJazzera was based in USA, will Tunisia recall its ambassador in Washington?
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Nas said
am October 26 2006 @ 6:33 pm
“he told me that it is harder for a Jordanian to go to work in Qatar than other nationalities”
yes there is known discrimination against jordanians in qatar but i think this latest incident has to do with breaking ties in the UNSG vote. anyways, thats over and done with so relations will probably resume after a while. as for aljazeera, it’s not as independent as it appears to be so its not a matter of responding to the country it’s based in. who funds aljazeera and their politics is frequently the reason why aljazeera is used as qatar’s mouthpiece. if they criticized qatar as much (or if at all) as they did any other arab nation then we’d be on to something.
Samer Marzouq said
am October 26 2006 @ 6:59 pm
I’ve asked a president of one of AlJazeera’s offices the question that has been asked by many of us: How come AlJazeera is offering AlQae’da a space to speak-out and attack USA while Qatar hosts the biggest American military base in the region? He replied that in 2005 the total minutes that AlQa’eda actually spoke-out on AlJazeera was 30 minutes or something like that while the USA had like 200 hours or something, I can’t remember exactly.
So he said that it is non-sense that AlJazeera is an alliance with AlQa’eda and is working against USA. I guess AlJazeera helps Arabs to release anger and rage.