Turkey Opens First Mideast Military Base in Qatar

[bsruzm]

“The return of Turkish troops to Qatar a century after Ottoman forces left the peninsula is largely about prestige,” Cafiero said during a recent trip to Qatar.

Besides isolation, added Cafiero, Qatar and Turkey are united in their distrust of Iran, with both countries supporting Iran’s enemies in Syria and Yemen. And since the Iran nuclear deal, the United States is no longer seen as a reliable military counter to Iran’s considerable strength.

“Gulf countries think if the U.S. doesn’t see Iran as a threat, the U.S. will withdraw,” he said.

Qatar is home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, with roughly 10,000 personnel. The new Turkish base is expected to house more than 3,000 people, including ground troops, special operations teams and military trainers.

“The security and stability of Qatar is like the security and stability of Turkey,” said Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a speech late last month. “We want a stable and secure Gulf. Turkey and Qatar, we have the same destiny."."


Turkey Opens First Mideast Military Base in Qatar

 

[Solomon2]

[story continues]

In Egypt, where Qatar and Turkey have supported the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, locals say the military alliance appears to be a power play in the region.

The Egyptian government regularly becomes angry over Qatar's support of the Muslim Brotherhood and has banned that nation’s television network, Al-Jazeera. On Saturday, an Egyptian court recommended the death penalty for six people, including two Al-Jazeera journalists, charged with leaking state secrets to Qatar.

Qatar may increase its strength through this alliance, according to Mohamed Salah, a 34-year-old international trade researcher, as he walked home from work Wednesday; but, Egypt will remain more powerful, he said.


Mohamed Salah, a international trade researcher in Egypt says he believes the new Turkish military base in Qatar is intended to grow the two nation's regional power, Cairo, May 5, 2016. (VOA/Hamada Elrasam)

“It’s not a direct threat,” he said. “I believe that Egypt still has the upper hand in the Gulf region by its relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Isolation

When the Arab Spring uprisings began, Turkey and Qatar supported Muslim Brotherhood factions across the region, angering many Arab governments as the two nations worked to increase their influence. Qatar, a rich but tiny nation of roughly 2 million people, lost some of its credibility among Gulf Cooperation Council members, including regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia.

“Qatar’s lowest point in GCC relations came when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors and threatened to close Qatar’s border for the alleged interference in GCC internal affairs,” writes Chris Solomon of Global Risks Insight, referring to a 2014 diplomatic dispute.

More recently, however, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have stood together in withdrawing ambassadors from Iran after the Saudi embassy in Tehran was attacked in retaliation for the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in the Kingdom.

Turkey has also found itself becoming more isolated internationally in recent years for other reasons. Turkey angered Russia by shooting down a Russian plane late last year, and its handling of Islamic State upset the United States. Turkey also is wrangling with Europe over free expression issues and is without active diplomatic relations in several Middle East countries.

Goals

Besides avoiding hardships that come with relative international isolation, Turkey and Qatar have other reasons for strengthening their military alliance, according to analysts.

Turkey, with nearly 75 million people and one of the region’s strongest military forces, stands to gain not only influence, but money as it breaks into the Gulf’s “lucrative defense market,” said analyst Cafiero.

“At this juncture,” he said, “Officials in Ankara view Qatar as Turkey’s most trusted Arab ally.”

“A shared political vision regarding the Middle East has helped bring the Turks and Qataris even closer,” Olivier Decottignies and Soner Cagaptay of The Washington Institute wrote in a January policy analysis piece.

Additionally, the move is part of a larger, long-term strategy, adds Cafiero. Qatari alliances are often with competing powers in order to play them off each other politically. The base, therefore, “further diversifies Doha’s web of defense partners and provides more states with higher stakes in a stable and prosperous Qatar.”

Cairo’s relationship with Doha and Ankara

And while people in Egypt do not necessarily see the move as aggressive, there is some worry that this strengthening alliance will further worsen relations.


Haj Mohy in Cairo, Egypt, says with his country's distrust of both Qatar and Turkey he worries the new base could increase the rivalry, Cairo, May 5, 2016. (VOA/Hamada Elrasam)

“The union of those two countries together and the fact that their relationship with Egypt is not good,” said Haj Mohy, a 52-year-old shopkeeper as he takes delivery calls while listening to Koran in a Cairo suburb. “Maybe there will be danger.”

Then again, he added, with all of the volatility in the region, it is hard to say what one new base could bring.

“There are American bases in the Gulf and there are Russian bases in the Gulf,” he said. “Is the Turkish base less or more dangerous?”

 

[bsruzm]

[story continues]

Your mask falls fast, don't let people know who you really are, easily.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) presents Turkey's highest state medal to Saudi Arabia's King Salman during a ceremony at the presidential complex in Ankara on April 12, 2016.


Erdogan gave Salman Turkey's highest honour for a foreign leader and praised his role in developing relations between the two overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim powers since succeeding his half brother Abdullah in 2015.

"The fact that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are deepening their co-operation in every field, with your support, is an opportunity for regional and global peace," Erdogan told King Salman.

"Since the day you came to the throne, you made great contributions to relations between our two countries."

___

"I have always, in all posts I occupied, given great attention to the relationships shared with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s visit to Turkey- given it is an official one- will have tremendous significance as to developing and evolving affairs between the two brother countries after the late stringency.

When I was in office, the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz visited Turkey, twice; at the time I had sent an invitation to King Salman – his Highness was the Deputy Crown Prince then- and he did visit Turkey. Many agreements were signed during the visit, whether on economic affairs, military manufacture or defense production and those initiatives have launched intensely." Abdullah Gul

 

[ultron]

Turkey is already in ME

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

After 300 years of rolling backward, it's time to un-rolling forward. Like the physical world, events in history follow sinusoidal (cyclic) patterns as per Murad-i Ilahi...

 

[Kuwaiti Girl]

Bad news for the anti-Muslim Brotherhood countries, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

 

[Bilad al-Haramayn]

Bad news for the anti-Muslim Brotherhood countries, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Mrs./Mr. half Baloch and half English.

The Muslim Brotherhood (a group that I am personally neutral about) have little if no future in the Arab world. At least in their current form. It's moreover an native Egyptian movement although a few copycat movements inspired by them have emerged in a few Arab and Muslim countries. Some analysts even claim that AKP have been inspired by them and they are probably right to an extend. Anyway they play a very small role politically in the Arab world overall let alone the Mashriq/Arabian Peninsula. Basically the political and economic support of the MB is an "Qatari project" to expand their influence as they are otherwise a tiny state that is unable to yield any serious geopolitical influence. Erdogan and the AKP are on the same boat but Turkey's position is very flexible in this regard. Turkey's secular model is also contrary to MB's vision as well as Turkey's business relations with Israel and Iran.

It's also ironic that Qatar (a monarchy and a Western ally) supports MB movements in other Arab countries (of course not the GCC itself) but not in their own.

Maybe most importantly, ties between KSA, since King Salman became king, have become quite close if not very close, so this small base (3000) is not seen as any "threat" whatsoever. KSA, Qatar and Turkey remain under the US umbrella and the same overall faction in the MENA region. Qatar's future is also extremely closely aligned to that of the GCC (the hegemon KSA in particular in that region of the world) as a whole and that fact no outside power is able to change whatsoever. Another obvious thing is that Qatar's entire population originates from nearby KSA including their royal family. There will come a time where all those small GCC states will join KSA (or t's successor state) and form a united federal Arabia politically, economically etc. which this whole "GCC project" (originally a club of monarchs) will inevitable lead to due to geopolitical circumstances and common logic. Whether the current rulers in power today want this or not.

Not to mention that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the MENA region already so this changes little.

If anything this is bad news for Iran as Arabs and Turkey are intensifying their relation - a relation that has a lot of potential. Also Arab-Turkish interests will always align more with each other than Turkish-Iranian relations. So this news is welcome for the Arabs and it also makes additional sense given the formation of the Saudi Arabian-led Islamic coalition which Turkey is a key partner of. I see that coalition in regards to the MENA region at least as a "KSA-Turkey project". In fact I predict that KSA-Turkey ties will only increase in the future especially as KSA is reforming politically, socially and economically. KSA and Turkey are already G-20 Major Economies member states partners and developing nations that face similar challenges. Both countries are at a crossroad in many ways as well.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Mrs./Mr. half Baloch and half English.

The Muslim Brotherhood (a group that I am personally neutral about) have little if no future in the Arab world. At least in their current form. It's moreover an native Egyptian movement although a few copycat movements inspired by them have emerged in a few Arab and Muslim countries. Some analysts even claim that AKP have been inspired by them and they are probably right to an extend. Anyway they play a very small role politically in the Arab world overall let alone the Mashriq/Arabian Peninsula. Basically the political and economic support of the MB is an "Qatari project" to expand their influence as they are otherwise a tiny state that is unable to yield any serious geopolitical influence. Erdogan and the AKP are on the same boat but Turkey's position is very flexible in this regard. Turkey's secular model is also contrary to MB's vision as well as Turkey's business relations with Israel and Iran.

It's also ironic that Qatar (a monarchy and a Western ally) supports MB movements in other Arab countries (of course not the GCC itself) but not in their own.

Maybe most importantly, ties between KSA, since King Salman became king, have become quite close if not very close, so this small base (3000) is not seen as any "threat" whatsoever. KSA, Qatar and Turkey remain under the US umbrella and the same overall faction in the MENA region. Qatar's future is also extremely closely aligned to that of the GCC (the hegemon KSA in particular in that region of the world) as a whole and that fact no outside power is able to change whatsoever. Another obvious thing is that Qatar's entire population originates from nearby KSA including their royal family. There will come a time where all those small GCC states will join KSA (or t's successor state) and form a united federal Arabia politically, economically etc. which this whole "GCC project" (originally a club of monarchs) will inevitable lead to due to geopolitical circumstances and common logic. Whether the current rulers in power today want this or not.

Not to mention that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the MENA region already so this changes little.

If anything this is bad news for Iran as Arabs and Turkey are intensifying their relation - a relation that has a lot of potential. Also Arab-Turkish interests will always align more with each other than Turkish-Iranian relations. So this news is welcome for the Arabs and it also makes additional sense given the formation of the Saudi Arabian-led Islamic coalition which Turkey is a key partner of. I see that coalition in regards to the MENA region at least as a "KSA-Turkey project". In fact I predict that KSA-Turkey ties will only increase in the future especially as KSA is reforming politically, socially and economically. KSA and Turkey are already G-20 Major Economies member states partners and developing nations that face similar challenges. Both countries are at a crossroad in many ways as well.

So much trauma in the region is the harbinger of the good days ahead. These artificial borders will be eroded inshaAllah..

 

[bsruzm]

Mrs./Mr. half Baloch and half English.

The Muslim Brotherhood (a group that I am personally neutral about) have little if no future in the Arab world. At least in their current form. It's moreover an native Egyptian movement although a few copycat movements inspired by them have emerged in a few Arab and Muslim countries. Some analysts even claim that AKP have been inspired by them and they are probably right to an extend. Anyway they play a very small role politically in the Arab world overall let alone the Mashriq/Arabian Peninsula. Basically the political and economic support of the MB is an "Qatari project" to expand their influence as they are otherwise a tiny state that is unable to yield any serious geopolitical influence. Erdogan and the AKP are on the same boat but Turkey's position is very flexible in this regard. Turkey's secular model is also contrary to MB's vision as well as Turkey's business relations with Israel and Iran.

It's also ironic that Qatar (a monarchy and a Western ally) supports MB movements in other Arab countries (of course not the GCC itself) but not in their own.

Maybe most importantly, ties between KSA, since King Salman became king, have become quite close if not very close, so this small base (3000) is not seen as any "threat" whatsoever. KSA, Qatar and Turkey remain under the US umbrella and the same overall faction in the MENA region. Qatar's future is also extremely closely aligned to that of the GCC (the hegemon KSA in particular in that region of the world) as a whole and that fact no outside power is able to change whatsoever. Another obvious thing is that Qatar's entire population originates from nearby KSA including their royal family. There will come a time where all those small GCC states will join KSA (or t's successor state) and form a united federal Arabia politically, economically etc. which this whole "GCC project" (originally a club of monarchs) will inevitable lead to due to geopolitical circumstances and common logic. Whether the current rulers in power today want this or not.

Not to mention that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the MENA region already so this changes little.

If anything this is bad news for Iran as Arabs and Turkey are intensifying their relation - a relation that has a lot of potential. Also Arab-Turkish interests will always align more with each other than Turkish-Iranian relations. So this news is welcome for the Arabs and it also makes additional sense given the formation of the Saudi Arabian-led Islamic coalition which Turkey is a key partner of. I see that coalition in regards to the MENA region at least as a "KSA-Turkey project". In fact I predict that KSA-Turkey ties will only increase in the future especially as KSA is reforming politically, socially and economically. KSA and Turkey are already G-20 Major Economies member states partners and developing nations that face similar challenges. Both countries are at a crossroad in many ways as well.

Claiming KSA would invade Qatar, is an absolute madness but explaining Turkey's presence with it, is worse. If not foolish, an insidious claim it is.

KSA-Turkey ties will only increase in the future especially as KSA is reforming politically, socially and economically.

I agree, and as you can observe here that some aren't happy with it.

Bad news for the anti-Muslim Brotherhood countries, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

"Turkey steps up ties with GCC, ends 3-year row with UAE

There is no need to recall how Turkey and Saudi Arabia clinched the alliance they have built over the past year, especially after the new Saudi King Salman came to the throne, through consecutive high-level visits. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid two important visits to Riyadh last year and King Salman visited Ankara and Istanbul.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a coordination council during King Salman’s talks in Turkey in a bid to take concrete steps to increase and diversify cooperation between the two countries.

Only 10 days after the summit, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu went to Jeddah and Riyadh to hold talks with senior Saudi leaders, including King Salman, to follow up earlier talks and concretize them. As Çavuşoğlu stated, this coordination council will have eight subcommittees to work in the fields of diplomacy, security, defense industry, trade, economy, investments, energy and education-culture.

It was also agreed to organize meetings between Turkey and the Gulf Countries’ Council at the ministerial level so that this relationship could gain a more structural nature.

After he concluded his talks with Saudi leaders, Çavuşoğlu moved on to Abu Dhabi on April 25, in a landmark visit symbolizing reconciliation between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This visit marked the first high-level political visit from Turkey to the UAE since May 2013, after bilateral ties were seriously damaged due to the parties’ different stances regarding the military coup in Egypt that toppled President Mohamed Morsi. One of the concrete results of the visit was the UAE’s decision to send an ambassador to Ankara on May 7 in order to herald the beginning of a new era between the two parties.

Çavuşoğlu received a warm reception in Abu Dhabi and seemed to be committed to further developing bilateral relations with the UAE."

 

[Kuwaiti Girl]

Mrs./Mr. half Baloch and half English.

The Muslim Brotherhood (a group that I am personally neutral about) have little if no future in the Arab world. At least in their current form. It's moreover an native Egyptian movement although a few copycat movements inspired by them have emerged in a few Arab and Muslim countries. Some analysts even claim that AKP have been inspired by them and they are probably right to an extend. Anyway they play a very small role politically in the Arab world overall let alone the Mashriq/Arabian Peninsula. Basically the political and economic support of the MB is an "Qatari project" to expand their influence as they are otherwise a tiny state that is unable to yield any serious geopolitical influence. Erdogan and the AKP are on the same boat but Turkey's position is very flexible in this regard. Turkey's secular model is also contrary to MB's vision as well as Turkey's business relations with Israel and Iran.

It's also ironic that Qatar (a monarchy and a Western ally) supports MB movements in other Arab countries (of course not the GCC itself) but not in their own.

Maybe most importantly, ties between KSA, since King Salman became king, have become quite close if not very close, so this small base (3000) is not seen as any "threat" whatsoever. KSA, Qatar and Turkey remain under the US umbrella and the same overall faction in the MENA region. Qatar's future is also extremely closely aligned to that of the GCC (the hegemon KSA in particular in that region of the world) as a whole and that fact no outside power is able to change whatsoever. Another obvious thing is that Qatar's entire population originates from nearby KSA including their royal family. There will come a time where all those small GCC states will join KSA (or t's successor state) and form a united federal Arabia politically, economically etc. which this whole "GCC project" (originally a club of monarchs) will inevitable lead to due to geopolitical circumstances and common logic. Whether the current rulers in power today want this or not.

Not to mention that Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the MENA region already so this changes little.

If anything this is bad news for Iran as Arabs and Turkey are intensifying their relation - a relation that has a lot of potential. Also Arab-Turkish interests will always align more with each other than Turkish-Iranian relations. So this news is welcome for the Arabs and it also makes additional sense given the formation of the Saudi Arabian-led Islamic coalition which Turkey is a key partner of. I see that coalition in regards to the MENA region at least as a "KSA-Turkey project". In fact I predict that KSA-Turkey ties will only increase in the future especially as KSA is reforming politically, socially and economically. KSA and Turkey are already G-20 Major Economies member states partners and developing nations that face similar challenges. Both countries are at a crossroad in many ways as well.

LOL. Talk about wishful thinking.

If Saudi Arabia wasn't terrified of the Muslim Brotherhood, then it wouldn't have financed the coup against Egypt's former president, Mohamed Morsi. If Saudi Arabia wasn't terrified of the Muslim Brotherhood, then it wouldn't have helped its Yemeni archenemy, Ansar Allah, against al-Islah in 2011 and 2012.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are engaged in a proxy war against Qatar and Turkey in Libya as we speak. The Saudis and Emiratis are backing Khalifa Haftar, whereas the Qataris and Turks are backing the Tripoli-based MB-aligned Islamists.

Who exactly are you trying to fool?

Last year, Qatar signed a military agreement with Iran that would allow the Iranian navy to establish a presence in Qatar's territorial waters. It also angered the Emiratis and Saudis.

The current Saudi king thinks that he can succeed in convincing the Turks to move away from the Muslim Brotherhood, but the truth is they won't as long as the AKP remains in power.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are bricking it right now.

Claiming KSA would invade Qatar, is an absolute madness but explaining Turkey's presence with it, is worse. If not foolish, an insidious claim it is.


I agree, and as you can observe here that some aren't happy with it.


"Turkey steps up ties with GCC, ends 3-year row with UAE

There is no need to recall how Turkey and Saudi Arabia clinched the alliance they have built over the past year, especially after the new Saudi King Salman came to the throne, through consecutive high-level visits. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid two important visits to Riyadh last year and King Salman visited Ankara and Istanbul.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a coordination council during King Salman’s talks in Turkey in a bid to take concrete steps to increase and diversify cooperation between the two countries.

Only 10 days after the summit, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu went to Jeddah and Riyadh to hold talks with senior Saudi leaders, including King Salman, to follow up earlier talks and concretize them. As Çavuşoğlu stated, this coordination council will have eight subcommittees to work in the fields of diplomacy, security, defense industry, trade, economy, investments, energy and education-culture.

It was also agreed to organize meetings between Turkey and the Gulf Countries’ Council at the ministerial level so that this relationship could gain a more structural nature.

After he concluded his talks with Saudi leaders, Çavuşoğlu moved on to Abu Dhabi on April 25, in a landmark visit symbolizing reconciliation between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This visit marked the first high-level political visit from Turkey to the UAE since May 2013, after bilateral ties were seriously damaged due to the parties’ different stances regarding the military coup in Egypt that toppled President Mohamed Morsi. One of the concrete results of the visit was the UAE’s decision to send an ambassador to Ankara on May 7 in order to herald the beginning of a new era between the two parties.

Çavuşoğlu received a warm reception in Abu Dhabi and seemed to be committed to further developing bilateral relations with the UAE."

You should read the tweets of Emiratis officials if you really want to know what they think of Turkey LOL.

This is the Twitter account of Dhahi Khalfan, a Dubai official:

https://twitter.com/dhahi_khalfan

He posts anti-Iranian and anti-Turkish comments on almost a daily basis. He's a very important official, and many people say that he's the unofficial spokesman for the Emirati government. There's not a week that goes by without him insulting Turkey and Erdogan.

As for Saudi Arabia, the Saudis tend to be quieter in their criticism of Turkey. Nonetheless, they sponsor a lot of anti-Turkish speeches, such as this one:

^This is a video of a Saudi preacher who denounces Erdogan for his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and describes Turkey as a country of "filth and corruption".

The truth is, Saudi Arabia and the UAE don't like Turkey. They fear Turkey, especially the Saudis.

Bear in mind that Turkey destroyed Saudi Arabia two times in the past.

Saudi Arabia doesn't mind being a friend of Turkey if Erdogan cuts his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and accepts playing second fiddle to the Saudis. But Erdogan will never do that. The Saudis are trying to pressure Turkey to reconsider its foreign policy, but they won't succeed.

 

[Malik Alashter]

Claiming KSA would invade Qatar, is an absolute madness

Then what are doing there?

Iran wont invade Qatar what else Iraq Oh they already the weakest country what else maybe the Martians I don't think so they just not exist the only thing is the Saudis.

 

[bsruzm]

You should read the tweets of Emiratis officials if you really want to know what they think of Turkey LOL.

This is the Twitter account of Dhahi Khalfan, a Dubai official:

https://twitter.com/dhahi_khalfan

He posts anti-Iranian and anti-Turkish comments on almost a daily basis. He's a very important official, and many people say that he's the unofficial spokesman for the Emirati government. There's not a week that goes by without him insulting Turkey and Erdogan.

As for Saudi Arabia, the Saudis tend to be quieter in their criticism of Turkey. Nonetheless, they sponsor a lot of anti-Turkish speeches, such as this one:

^This is a video of a Saudi preacher who denounces Erdogan for his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and describes Turkey as a country of "filth and corruption".

The truth is, Saudi Arabia and the UAE don't like Turkey. They fear Turkey, especially the Saudis.

Bear in mind that Turkey destroyed Saudi Arabia two times in the past.

Saudi Arabia doesn't mind being a friend of Turkey if Erdogan cuts his ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and accepts playing second fiddle to the Saudis. But Erdogan will never do that. The Saudis are trying to pressure Turkey to reconsider its foreign policy, but they won't succeed.

Nobody denies our disagreement's with KSA and UAE but one retard, a nobody and two Saudi preacher's explained all your claim, thanks.

"Khalfan also launched a verbal attack against Kuwait in March 2014, claiming that it supported the Muslim Brotherhood, and accused Kuwait of 'destroying Iraq'. In 2015, he was publicly rebuked by Emirati minister of foreign affairs Abdullah bin Zayed on Twitter as a result of expressing support for former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. He also criticised the tactics employed by coalition forces during the 2015 intervention in Yemen."

He doesn't seem that important, I know how things work in UAE and it's hierarchy. You should try harder, "LOL" doesn't help.

 

[Kuwaiti Girl]

Evidently, you know nothing about the UAE or the region's politics lol.

Khalfan is the unofficial spokesman for the UAE government. He says exactly what Mohammed bin Zayed asks him to say. Everyone and their dog knows that lol.

Ali Abdullah Saleh's family lives in Dubai. The UAE has very close ties to the former Yemeni president. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have different objectives for Yemen. The Saudis want Yemen to remain unified and under the rule of their favorite lackey, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Emiratis, on the other hand, want to divide Yemen into two parts. They want the South Yemen Movement to rule over South Yemen, and Ali Abdullah Saleh to rule over North Yemen.

In short, nothing Dhahi Khalfan has ever said went against the views of the UAE rulers. If anything, he has been rewarded and promoted over the years.

There's a very good reason why Turkey is setting up a military base in Qatar rather than Bahrain, the UAE or Saudi Arabia.

Over the years, Qatar has signed military agreements with two countries that are feared by the Saudis and Emirati rulers: Turkey and Iran.

Last year, the Qataris signed a military agreement with Iran that would allow the Iranian navy to establish a presence in Qatar's territorial waters. I will provide you a link and pictures once I have enough posts to do so.

Also, back in 2010, Qatar signed an agreement with Iran that would allow the Iranian military to enter Qatari soil should Qatar be invaded by another country (e.g. Saudi Arabia).

The point is, Qatar is hated (and not trusted) by the ruling elites of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Back in 2014, Saudi Arabia and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar after they accused the Qataris of sponsoring the Muslim Brotherhood movement. In late 2012, Qatar's former prime minister (Hamad bin Jassim) tried to overthrow the ruling family and government of Kuwait with the help of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood. Sources close to the Kuwaiti royal family say that Kuwait was ready to go to war with Qatar over this issue. This would've destroyed the GCC once and for all. Eventually, a deal was brokered by the other GCC states, in which Hamad bin Jassim and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa would step down from power in exchange for peace, which they finally did in June 2013.

I hope you now understand why the Qataris want the Turks to set up a military base in their country and why they also signed numerous military agreements with the Iranians. They're doing all of this because they do not trust the Americans for protection. The Americans aren't willing to jeopardize their relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait for the sake of Qatar. The Turks, on the other hand, share the same pro-Muslim Brotherhood agenda as Qatar, therefore they are, for the time being, natural allies in the region. Likewise, the Iranians and Qataris are also natural allies due to the offshore gas field that they share.

Just look at Egypt and Libya. In Egypt, Morsi, who was backed by Qatar and Turkey, was overthrown by a Saudi- and Emirati-backed military dictator (i.e. el-Sisi). In Libya, the Emiratis and Saudis are fighting a proxy war against the Islamist government in Tripoli, which happens to be backed by Qatar and Turkey.

Saudi Arabia is trying hard right now to convince the Turks to abandon Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood, and play second fiddle to the Saudis in the region. The Turks won't accept this because it would do a lot of long-term damage to their regional credibility.

By the way, do you know that the UAE quietly ordered its citizens to sell anything they owned in Turkey? Kuwait is also doing the same thing.

The Saudis are being cautious right now. They don't want to directly oppose the Turks because they still think they can convince Turkey to change its foreign policy positions. Nonetheless, the Saudis are funding most of the anti-Turkish rhetoric in countries like Kuwait and the UAE.

The Saudis are in a lot of trouble. They know that, if the Muslim Brotherhood comes back to power in Egypt with the help of Turkey, they will be next.

 

[Bilad al-Haramayn]

@bsruzm @HAKIKAT

I think that you can both see what this individual is trying to do here. She/he is desperately trying to portray KSA and Turkey as enemies while this is nothing more than a nonsense claim that does not correspondent to ground realities especially after Salman became king. What I wrote in post 7 are pure facts and despite certain political disagreements the overall interests of both regimes/countries are aligned and everyone can see that.

The funniest thing is her/his blabbering about an Iranian base in Qatar, lol.

 

[Kuwaiti Girl]

@bsruzm @HAKIKAT

I think that you can both see what this individual is trying to do here. She/he is desperately trying to portray KSA and Turkey as enemies while this is nothing more than a nonsense claim that does not correspondent to ground realities especially after Salman became king. What I wrote in post 7 are pure facts and despite certain political disagreements the overall interests of both regimes/countries are aligned and everyone can see that.

The funniest thing is her/his blabbering about an Iranian base in Qatar, lol.

Too bad you're still living in a fantasy world, al-Hasani.

Why don't you go ahead and explain why your country is engaged in a proxy war against Turkey in Libya, or why your country funded a coup against Egypt's former president, Morsi, who was a good friend of Erdogan?