Qatar as Another Hotbed of Tension Between U.S. and Turkey

On Wednesday, June 7, the Turkish media wrote that Parliament voted to deploy 5,000 troops in the Turkish military base in Qatar – Ankara’s only base in the Middle East.

Doha is believed to be Turkey’s traditional ally, and it would be surprising if the Turkish authorities pledged their support to Saudi Arabia and its U.S.-led partners.

Ankara to confront Washington
Another fact catches attention – it’s not the first time Ankara confronts the White House. Ankara severely criticized Washington’s decision to supply the Kurdish forces fighting in Syria with heavier weapons, opposed their participation in the Raqqa operation, and recently unilaterally declared the start of the offensive on ISIS stronghold in Syria which was later rebutted by the Pentagon.

Now, within the so far diplomatic crisis, Turkey became one of the few countries that sided with Qatar. With the wide support of U.S. president Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia, this will obviously bring even larger discord into the Turkish-American relations. Both sides seek their own different goals, and this will stir up the conflict.

Purge in Turkey goes on
To be mentioned is that on Tuesday, June 6, chair of Amnesty International Turkey was detained while yesterday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu lashed out at the U.S. House of Representatives resolution to condemn Recep Tayyip Erdogan bodyguards’ attack on protesters during the visit to the United States in May.

The sides’ hypocrisy
It is notable that all the sides of the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia show quite a high level of hypocrisy. The U.S. accuse Qatar of ‘terrorism support’ but not so long ago Donald Trump signed with Riyadh an arms contract worth more than $100 billion. In its turn, Saudi Arabia backs not only the Syrian opposition but also various terror groups like al-Qaeda or ISIS, which even Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump acknowledged.

Ankara as well supports radical groups in Syria, trains the FSA militants and smuggled arms to terrorists disguising the weapons as humanitarian aid. And with all these in mind, how can the country’s prime minister claim that Ankara is “against terrorism and destabilization in the region” and “is set to solve the Qatar crisis by dialogue”?

The tension is acute as never before
No one can definitely say when the conflict will be resolved but one thing is evident – the tension in the Middle East is acute as never before, and this happens because of Washington that doesn’t care for consequences and pursues its own goals by supplying the Saudis and Kurds with weapons. Ankara is opposing its NATO ally and seems to be taking steps that are more decisive.

War is likely to engulf not only Syria, Iraq and Yemen but the whole Arabian Peninsula as the sheikhs, ‘sultan’ Erdogan and the businessman Trump ready for anything for profit will stop at nothing to reach what they want.

Mehmet Ersoy
Inside Syria Media Center

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