Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger -- Qatar’s strategic alliance with Iran’s Ayatollah regime has been tightened since 2017, in the face of the blockade on Qatar, which was imposed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain.
The blockade was imposed due to their accusation that Qatar was fomenting terrorism and subversion in their countries, as well as assisting Al Qaeda, Yemen’s Houthis and other terrorists.
The intensification of the Qatar-Iran strategic collaboration has taken place irrespective of Iran’s emergence as the lead global epicenter of anti-US terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, the proliferation of advanced military systems, the fomenting of civil wars, Iran’s attempts to topple every pro-US Sunni (“apostate”) Arab regime, and the Ayatollah assistance to every anti-US government in Latin America.
Moreover, Qatar has been accused by Saudi Arabia of intensifying tension in the oil-rich, Shiite-majority Eastern Province of the kingdom, as well as between the House of Saud and the Wahabis (20%-40% of the Saudi population), whose two-centuries-old-claim to be the sole designated-legitimate interpreter of Islam has been challenged by Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman.
