The Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict refers to the temporary struggle for regional influence between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both of which are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It is sometimes called the New Arab Cold War or the Second Arab Cold War. Bilateral relations have been especially strained since the beginning of the Arab Spring, that left a power vacuum both states sought to fill, with Qatar being supportive of the revolutionary wave and Saudi Arabia opposing it. Both states are allies of the United States, and have avoided direct conflict with one another.
Qatar has differences with the Saudi bloc on a number of issues: it broadcasts Al Jazeera, that widely reported the Arab Spring; it maintains relatively good relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's key rival; and it has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in the past. Saudi Arabia frames the conflict with Qatar as a subset of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict due to Saudi Arabia's longstanding concern about the country's relationship with Iran and Iranian-backed militant groups. However, Qatar maintains the conflict is an attempt for Saudi Arabia to reassert the hegemony over Qatar it enjoyed during the 20th century.
The Tunisian Revolution of January 2011 ousted longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after being denied asylum in France. Widespread Al Jazeera coverage of the 2011 Bahraini uprising fueled Saudi suspicions the Qatari government sought to overthrow the Saudi government via soft power. The Saudis then supported a largely successful counterrevolution to the Arab Spring to preserve the monarchy of Bahrain, overthrow the Egyptian democratically elected president Mohammad Morsi, and stymie international support for the post-Gaddafi government in Libya. Since the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, there has been a consistent pattern of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt opposing the designs of Qatar and Turkey, who supported democratic Islamist and Salafi extremist groups, particularly in the Syrian civil war.
Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar mediated through the GCC during the Yemeni Revolution against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, although Qatar was considered more pro-revolution and KSA more pro-Saleh. Both rivals also backed the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, a key ally of Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Qatari involvement in the Syrian Civil War was initially far greater in 2013 than Saudi involvement, and their backing of rival revolutionary groups benefited the incumbent Assad regime and what would become the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In 2014, the two countries backed rival sides in the Second Libyan Civil War, which continues to intensify, and they had even temporarily severed diplomatic relations with each other. When Salman of Saudi Arabia ascended to the throne in 2015, the two began to cooperate more in Syria and fought Houthi militias in the Yemeni civil war. Saudi-Qatari relations were seen near a high point when Qatar severed ties with Iran by recalling its ambassador from Tehran in response to the attack on the Saudi embassy there following the 2016 Saudi execution of Nimr al-Nimr.
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, the Maldives, Mauritania, Senegal, Djibouti, the Comoros, Jordan, the Tobruk-based Libyan government and finally the Hadi-led Yemeni government severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and blocked Qatar's airspace and sea routes along with Saudi Arabia blocking the only land crossing over its relations with Iran, Al-Jazeera reporting negative information about other GCC states and Egypt and the country's alleged support of Islamist groups. Qatar was also expelled from the anti-Houthi coalition. Qatar's defense minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah called the blockade akin to a bloodless declaration of war, and Qatar's finance minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi stated that Qatar is rich enough to withstand the blockade. On 24 August 2017, Qatar announced that they would restore full diplomatic relations with Iran. As the diplomatic standoff reached its second year, Saudi Arabia announced it would build a canal. Subsequently, this could turn Qatar into an island.
As of June 2024 Saudi Arabia has welcomed the resumption of diplomatic representation between the UAE and Qatar, reflecting continued efforts to stabilize and enhance inter-GCC relations.
Background History Since he took power in 1995, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani believed Qatar could find security only by transforming itself from a Saudi appendage to a rival of Saudi Arabia. According to Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, "Qatar used to be a kind of Saudi vassal state, but it used the autonomy that its gas wealth created to carve out an independent role for itself... Above all, gas prompted Qatar to promote a regional policy of engagement with Shiite Iran to secure the source of its wealth". Qatar and Iran share ownership of the South Pars/North Dome Gas-Condensate field, by far the world's largest natural gas field, with significant geostrategic influence.Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "Why the Arabs Don’t Want Us in Syria", politico.com, 22 February 2016 To further offset Saudi influence, Qatar is a close ally of the United States, hosting the largest American base in the Middle East, Al Udeid Air Base. Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador to Doha from 2002 to 2008 to try to pressure Qatar to curb its individualistic tendencies. This approach broadly failed.
Qatar maintains relatively good relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia often frames the issue as a proxy battle between partners and adversaries of Iran. United Arab Emirates politicians claim that "Qatar invests billions of dollars in the U.S. and Europe and then recycles the profits to support Iranian-aligned Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and groups linked to al Qaeda. While Qatar hosts the American military base from which the U.S. directs its regional war against extremism, it also owns media networks responsible for inciting many of the same extremists". Qatar also used its contacts to help negotiate peaceful exchanges of hostages for the safe evacuation of civilians from areas affected by the Syrian Civil War. In 2006, Qatar was the only UN Security Council member to vote against United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696 that called on Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program.
In April 2017, after a 12-year freeze, Qatar lifted a self-imposed ban on developing the gas field with Iran, that would require cooperation between the two countries. According to David Roberts, a Qatar foreign policy expert at King's College, London, if a conflict erupts between America and Iran, Qatar would literally be caught in the middle. "If you are Qatar, you look across the water and you think, when Iran did have the opportunity to take a few Arab islands, they did it." "Qatar needs to have the ability to peacefully go about their business of sucking all the gas out of that giant field." Iran could make that process very difficult. A senior fellow of Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations concludes that "There's a recognition of the general tendencies of the Gulf states to hedge their bets,"There's always a question in the back of the minds of the leadership--how much faith can they put in the U.S.?"
On 27 May 2017, the newly reelected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a phone call with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Rouhani told Qatar's emir, "The countries of the region need more cooperation and consultations to resolve the crisis in the region and we are ready to cooperate in this field.""Iran president holds phone conversation with Qatari emir over Gulf relations". The National. 27 May 2017.
Arab Spring and Al Jazeera The Qatari Al-Jazeera is a media organization owned by the Government of Qatar. It is the most popular network in the Middle East, and its news network has criticized principal foreign governments involved in triggering the dispute and been accused of supporting Qatari interests. The Saudi-led coalition against Qatar has demanded that Al-Jazeera be shut down.
Terrorism Qatar has been accused of sponsoring terrorism. Some countries have faulted Qatar for funding rebel groups in Syria, including al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, although the Saudis have done the same. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been involved in the CIA–led Timber Sycamore covert operation to train and arm Syrian rebels.
Qatar has hosted officials from the Afghan Taliban and Hamas. Qatar defends this move by saying it is trying to act as an intermediary in regional conflicts by hosting talks between the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan government in 2016.
On 13 July 2017, Bob Corker, a Republican senator and the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stated that the "[t]he amount of support for terrorism by Saudi Arabia dwarfs what Qatar is doing". Former US Defense Secretary and ex-CIA chief Robert Gates stated in May 2017 that he does not "know instances in which Qatar aggressively goes after (terror finance) networks of Hamas, Taliban, Al-Qaeda," and that "My attitudes toward Al-Udeid and any other facility is that the United States military doesn't have any irreplaceable facility." Qatar hosts the largest American base in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base, which has been used by the United States in its campaigns in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. According to the WSJ, during President Barack Obama's first term, some members of his National Security Council lobbied to pull a U.S. fighter jet squadron out of Al Udeid to protest Qatari support of militant groups in the Middle East.
Timeline 2002–2008
In 2002, Saudi Arabia removed their ambassador from Qatar over Al Jazeera's alleged critical stance towards Saudi Arabia. Diplomatic relations were re-established in 2008, after assurances that Al Jazeera would limit its coverage of Saudi Arabia.
2014 During a March 2014 meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, after which the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain announced the recall of their ambassadors to Qatar, citing interference with their internal affairs. The situation was eventually defused after Qatar forced Brotherhood members to leave the country eight months later.
Some economists have interpreted the 2014 Saudi–Qatari rift as the tangible political sign of a growing economic rivalry between oil and natural gas producers, which could "have deep and long-lasting consequences" beyond the Middle East-North Africa area.
2017–2018: Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic crisis
In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Sudan, Senegal, Djibouti, Comoros, Jordan, the Tobruk-based Libyan government and the Hadi-led Yemeni government severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and blocked Qatar's airspace and sea routes along with Saudi Arabia blocking the only land crossing over its relations with Iran, Al-Jazeera reporting negative information about other GCC states and Egypt and the country's alleged support of Islamist groups. Qatar was also expelled from the anti-Houthi coalition. Qatar's defense minister Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah called the blockade akin to a bloodless declaration of war and Qatar's finance minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi stated that Qatar is rich enough to withstand the blockade.