Qatar: The new ‘western policeman’ in Muslim World

The US is grooming the tiny oil/gas rich ($25.9 billion in 2010) sheikhdom Qatar to replace Saudi Arabia as the ‘western policeman’ to guard US and Israeli interests in the Middle East in particular and the Muslim world at large.In addition to its oil/gas wealth, Qatar is home to America’s $1.4 billion Al-Udeid Air Base and Zionist-controlled Al-Jazeera English (AJE). The air base is the headquarter of CENTCOM, through which the Pentagon maintains its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. The US has also used this base to rain hundreds of drones over Pakistan killing thousands of Muslim men, women and children. The US military bases in Qatar, Iraq and Turkey are the first defense line for Israel.Al-Jazeera has played a major role in bringing the western-sponsored regime-changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya while providing full support to US-Israeli puppet regime in Bahrain and Yemen. Now, Al-Jazeera is running a vicious campaign against Bashar al-Assad and Sheikh Nasrallah of Hizbullah.Qatar’s al-Thani dynasty has become so aggressive that it officials assualted Russian ambassador Vladimir Titirenko at Doha Airport on November 29, 2011. It was a warning from Washington for Moscow’s support for current regimes in Damascus and Tehran – and for inviting Hizbullah delegate to Moscow in October. As result of the incident, Moscow has suspended its diplomatic relation with Qatar.On December 4, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov officially informed Qatari Prime Minister and concurrently Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani that Moscow is suspending diplomatic relations with Doha until demands of the Russian side are completed in full.Moscow’s relations with Doha became somewhat strained in the course of the Arab Spring gripping Middle Eastern and North African countries. The previous week, Russia officially criticized Qatar for its role in the Libyan uprising, which violated the arms embargo imposed on the country by the UN Security Council.“We know how the arms embargo was applied in Libya. The opposition was receiving arms, with such countries as France and Qatar publicly stating that they have supplied those arms,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow on the same day Titorenko was attacked at Doha Airport.Qatar has been consistently supporting sanctions against Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whereas Russia is acting against sanctioning Syria on all diplomatic levels, including the UN Security Council.The incident with the Russian diplomat may be viewed as an extension of the “aggressive stance” Qatar has adopted after it became the rotational head of the Arab League, says James Corbett. The US companies has invested $60-70 billion in the Qatari energy industry.