The Blockade of Qatar
In June 2017 four Arab states severed relations with Qatar, closed its only land border, shut their airspace to Qatari aircraft and expelled Qatari citizens. They presented thirteen demands: close Al Jazeera, shut the Turkish military base, downgrade relations with Iran, end support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and submit to monthly compliance audits. The list was widely read as designed to be rejected, since acceptance would have ended Qatar's independent foreign policy. Qatar rejected all thirteen. Rather than capitulate it deepened the relationships the blockade was meant to sever: Turkey accelerated deployment to its base at Doha, Iran opened its airspace and shipped food, and Qatar airlifted dairy cattle to establish domestic milk production. The United States, whose Al Udeid air base outside Doha is its largest installation in the region and the air command centre for operations across the Middle East, was unwilling to see the quarrel go further. The blockade was lifted at the Al-Ula summit in January 2021 with none of the demands met. Qatar emerged with its strategy vindicated and its mediating role expanded, hosting the talks that produced the 2020 US-Taliban agreement and later channels on Gaza, Sudan and Lebanon.
- Year: 2017 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
