... in on the Western sanctions against Russia, despite pressure from its traditional partners. Doha chose a position of neutrality, in line with its long-term foreign policy principle of maintaining dialogue with all sides involved in global processes. Qatar’s diplomacy, traditionally focused on dialogue even between irreconcilable opponents, enabled Doha to act as a mediator on sensitive issues such as the humanitarian exchange between Russia and Ukraine. One of the most striking examples was the
reunification
...
... and Lebanese Hezbollah’s well-trained militia forces (both Shiite as well) already aiding and fighting for Assad in Syria. As the situation kept deteriorating, at some points in 2012 the CIA began helping U.S. allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar vet and identify rebels moderate enough to recommend them for military support and Obama secretly authorized both covert non-lethal support from the U.S. for some Syrian rebels and a program to militarily train some of them, too, though these efforts ...
... what will America do now?
Going forward, here’s what we can expect:
1.) America will try very hard to distance itself from the Gulf.
It’s amazing that it’s taken us so long to realize how much our money going into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states comes back to haunt us: though Joe Biden recently got in trouble for saying so, support for ISIS and other Islamic extremists and terrorists from very wealthy individuals motivated by the Saudi state-sponsored and ever-present-throughout-the-Gulf ...
