Gulf crisis, beating around the bush!

As the Gulf crisis drags on, Qatar is gaining more leverage, both at the regional and international levels. The latest gain was the directive issued by ICAO, asking the blockaders to comply with the Chicago Convention. The July 30 Manama meeting  backfired on the quartet as it highlighted the contradictions persisting among them.This is a quick recall: On June 5, the siege countries imposed an arbitrary blockade on Qatar. Following  international pressure, they issued an imaginary list of 13 demands which was rejected by Qatar. On July 5, the quartet came out with the ‘Six Cairo Principles’ with no mentioning of the 13 demands. Then on July 30, the blockaders met in Manama and expressed their willingness to sit for a dialogue, provided that Doha implements the list of 13 demands and the Six Cairo Principles. In other words, the blockaders have been beating around the bush. With the Manama meeting, the Gulf crisis went back to square one. However,  a new development at the Manama meeting was the injection of the word ‘dialogue’. To be fair, the word dialogue seemed to have been forcefully inserted as a decoration and is meant for foreign consumption. The meeting also did not fail to add some lies about Qatar, the top among them being the  claim that Qatar asked for the internationalisation of the Haj pilgrimage.Saudi Arabia has been using religion as a tool in its blockade on Doha. It imposed unjust restrictions on Qatar residents, who want to perform the Haj. Qatar has only complained to the UN about the unjust restrictions. Riyadh politicised Haj. In a nutshell, the blockaders have missed several face-saving opportunities to end their crisis. They could have availed of the opportunity of the MoU signed  between the US and Qatar on combating terrorism  on July 11. Saudi Arabia could have taken the Haj opportunity and lifted the restrictions on Qataris.The blockaders have reached a phase where a sense of loss is prevalent. His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani welcomed dialogue in his July 21 speech, provided that Qatar’s sovereignty remained untouched, and any solution is binding on all. Qatar is hopeful the Kuwaiti mediation will succeed.falmudahka@gulf-times.com