gatehousethetinkertailor :
The strategy does point to the most probable reason for the
Qataris fall-out with the Emiratis and Saudis - it appears that the
Qataris had taken the position that the Arab world does not want a
direct armed confrontation with Iran but MBS and the US had been
headstrong in pushing ahead with it thus leading to the blockade of
Qatar and the potential collapse of the GCC as a body. A new order
is quickly being brought to bear with the Saudis, Emiratis,
Americans with Israelis doubling down on a conflict with Iran.
"Iranians count their history not in decades or centuries, but
in millennia. And as much as the US and its allies have tried to
isolate it, contain it, sanction it for its nuclear program, with
its diversified, oil-fueled economy and population of more than 80
million, Iran's power and influence across the Middle East has
continued to grow, and not just among the Arab states. It is now
cultivating closer ties with Turkey and Russia.
"Since King Cyrus the Great the Iranians have been a regional
power," says Rami Khouri, senior fellow at the American University
of Beirut. "They know how to do statecraft."
In comparison, says Khouri, the Saudis and its Gulf allies are
"amateurs, and now they are trying to do something in Lebanon to
show they are tough guys. But this is a hopeless endeavor."
