Dubai: Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the world’s top diplomats have defeated the road to Qatar, long gates to the Taliban and are now important for the West trying to deal with the new Kabul government.
This is not an accident.
Analysts illustrate the appearance of Qatar as a broker in Afghanistan as part of a strategy that was carefully maintained by a tiny state but rich to improve its own security, by being indispensable as an international mediation place.
The largest liquid natural gas producer in the world, the country of small desert peninsula is one of the richest countries per capita.
It is home to nearly 3 million people, 85 percent of them strangers with guest worker visas.
But it has long had outsized ambition, organizing the largest US air base in the Middle East and the most influential TV channels.
It wasted a lot of regional influence over the past decade by exceeding the badness of the ugliness of the 2011 Arab spring, when he supported the pro-democracy and rebel movements throughout the region.
Angry neighbors led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with their allies Egypt, punished him with trade sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
Now, Qatar is back.
Disputes with Arabic power were finally completed this year, and next year will host the World Cup football.
But some movements seem to have paid quite large diplomatic dividends as their role in Afghanistan, cultivated because they let the Taliban open the Group’s main international office in 2013 and provide a place for peace talks that lead to US agreements last year to attract.
That “patient diplomatic facilitation” is a classic means for a small country to increase its international relevance, said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Washington Institute.
“Given the size of the population, the substantial military projection is a difficult proposition.
But Qatar can bring real value through maintained relationships, especially throughout the West and Islamic parties – and especially those who will be approached directly.” In weeks since the guerrillas swept power, more than 58,000 from 124,000 Western citizens and at risk of Afghanistan were flown from Afghanistan flying through Qatar.
And now, as a temporary home for the Afghan embassy evacuated from the United States and several European allies, it functions as the main mediator for Western efforts to be involved.
Step on “As we do, our diplomacy is here, we know that Qatar will be our partner, because this is not the first time Qatar increases to help in Afghanistan,” said US Secretary Antony Blinken, who visited this week with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin .
An qatar official said that as an impartial mediator, Qatar had been involved with all parties to provide freedom to move for those in Afghanistan, and “fight terrorism to prevent future instability in the region”.
Working with allies near Turkey, has helped the Taliban reopen the Kabul airport, allowing humanitarian and domestic flights to continue.
During the evacuation of Afghanistan’s hasty, Qatar diplomats on the ground in Kabul helped escort Afghanistan through checkpoints to airports.
As a small country surrounded by better armed rivals that will undoubtedly want the gas field, Qatar has long felt the need to protect himself with ambitious diplomacy.
Four years ago, he found himself in danger when Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and their allies, with a clear tacit approval of Trump administration, imposed a ban on trade and diplomatic isolation.
Neighbors accused Qatar to support Sunni Muslim Islamic groups throughout the region while simultaneously grew too comfortable with Shi’ite Iran.
Some in the region wondered whether Saudi Arabia and his allies might even attack, even though Riyadh denied hiding the plan.
Qatar, protected from the economic impact of the Sovereign $ 300 billion wealth fund, denied its neighbor’s mistakes and survived until this dispute was completed in January.
But Feud underlines the need to grow strong friends.
Being useful for the West can help, said James Dorsey, a senior at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“It’s a lot of problems about influence because it is a problem about relevant to the international community in a way where the international community – if you are under threat – will step for you.”
West owe Qatar as aid for Afghanistan. That’s the point
