The diplomatic crisis in Qatar saw a new development Wednesday as Turkey’s parliament passed legislation permitting the deployment of troops to a Turkish military base in Qatar. The legislation was drafted prior to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain severing ties with Qatar, but indicates that Turkey is willing to help the Gulf Arab country.
The bill was supported by both the governing AK party and the nationalist opposition.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Tuesday that “Turkey will continue and will develop our ties with Qatar,” adding that “we do not think the sanctions against Qatar are good.” Erdogan insisted Turkey would have intervened if the sanctions of terrorist support were proved, but questioned the effectiveness of measures already taken by his Arab neighbors in isolating the small emirate. Reports of Qatar’s ongoing support for regional Islamist groups, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood, and Shiite-ruled Iran, led to uneasy relations with many neighboring nations.
Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani responded to the crisis by advocating the opening of dialogue between nations, stating Tuesday, “We are not a superpower here, we are not believing in solving things with confrontation.” However, Turkey’s move calls into question their reiterated desire to see the conflict resolved at the negotiating table. Iran has also supported a diplomatic solution to the disagreement.
Saudi Arabia said that Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region,” including the factions of the Islamic State supported by Iran, lead to the severing of diplomatic ties. Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain first removed their ambassadors from Qatar in 2014.
Negative sentiments boiled over quickly last month when the state-run Qatar Press Agency cited the emir making statements that seemed to confirm those previous allegations of support for terrorist groups Although the government blamed hackers for the posts, emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani’s statements that there was “no wisdom in harbouring hostility toward Iran” and that it was a “big power in the stabilisation of the region” made a bad impression on their neighbors. It did not help that the Qatari capital city of Doha is known to house an office for the Afghan Taliban.
Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain have issued two weeks’ notice for Qatari nationals to leave their territories, in addition to banning all travel to Qatar by their citizens.
Some have linked the upheaval to Trump’s trip to the region. The president tweeted Tuesday, “So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries paying off. They said they were taking a hard line of funding … extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!”
While Trump’s remarks were undeniably optimistic, questions remain surrounding the U.S. air base located in Qatar, the nation’s largest in the Middle Eastern region, and home to about 10,000 American soldiers.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was quick to clarify that the president’s tweets were merely advocating a “message of toughness on terror-financing,” and was not indicative of the U.S, taking sides concerning the conflict.
