Let’s talk about the Qatar blockade.
The football Gulf Cup is happening in Doha. And at first, Saudi Arabia
the UAE and Bahrain said they were boycotting the games. 
But not anymore, they’re sending teams.
And that’s a big deal because those Gulf nations broke off ties with Qatar in 2017.
They imposed a land, sea and air blockade that’s still in effect.
But let’s rewind a second.
Why did these former allies fall out in the first place?
Let’s start with some basic facts about Gulf countries 
and generally we’re talking about six Arab states:
Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE 
Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
They’re part of a political and economic alliance
called the Gulf Cooperation Council or the GCC,  that was set up in 1981.
And they have a lot in common.
Much of the enchantment is its timeless, changless character.
Desert landscapes, hot weather, the Arabic language 
Islam, similar food and culture, and oil.
Gulf countries are also relatively new.  
Their current borders were only drawn up in the 20th Century.
The social fabric of these countries is mainly based on tribes.
So you can find people belonging to the same tribe, for example
living in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in Bahrain, in Emirates, in Kuwait
because they used, actually, to move freely.
And today’s ruling families in the Gulf come from these tribes 
The Al Thanis in Qatar, the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia 
the Al Nahyans in the UAE, the Al Sabahs in Kuwait
the Al Saids in Oman, and the Khalifas in Bahrain.
Many of these families intermarried
so they sort of have one foot in each other’s royal courts.
But one thing was clear, Saudi Arabia always saw itself in the lead.
It’s the largest and most oil-rich Gulf country 
and it has Mecca and Medina - Islam’s holiest sites.
Saudi Arabia’s dominance in the GCC went almost unchallenged, until 1995.
In Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani announced   
 
that he was taking over power from his father.
And this Emir had his own ideas about the path he wanted for his country.
He decided, actually, to have his own relations, international relations
with the regional and international players. He decided to have a  
more balanced approach in his foreign relations.
Qatar for instance, deepened its trading relationship with Iran, Saudi’s big rival
because they share a massive natural gas reserve.
Qatar also launched a television network called Al Jazeera
and this isn't a plug, it's actually a very key part of the story.
You see, while Saudi Arabia had been dropping its support for certain
political Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar didn't follow suit
and Al Jazeera gave the voices of political Islam, and others, a platform.
The Saudis and Emiratis, they started to see the Muslim Brotherhood 
as a major threat to them. Why? Because for Saudi Arabia as the leader 
of the Sunni Islam actually, any other form of Islamist or Islamic organisations
are seen as a threat to their leadership of the Muslim world.
So Sheikh Hamad was seen as a bit of a rebel. There was even an attempted
overthrow of him in 1996, just a year after he came to power
which Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain all supported.
But the coup failed, so as you can imagine, that created even more
tension. And then came the Arab Spring.
A wave of uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain
saw people take to the streets to overthrow authoritarian leaders.
And Qatar’s Al Jazeera Media Network, covered it all.
"The people are vowing revenge."
“The deadly nationwide crackdown has attracted international condemnation.”
“The anti-government momentum is building up.”
The Saudis actually did not like that a lot because they were really concerned
that that wave of Arab Spring just might come to their shores.
Especially after the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt.
What happened in Egypt after the Arab Spring 
really made Saudi’s leaders nervous. And it’s just one place 
and one example of how the split with Qatar widened even further.
Egypt held its first democratic election in 2012, won by Mohammed Morsi 
who was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
A year later, after pro and anti-Morsi protests, the military forced him out.
What followed was a violent clampdown that killed hundreds of his 
supporters, and Al Jazeera covered that too.
"Everyone in the square, including journalists covering the protests
came under a hail of apparently indiscriminate gunfire.
This was the team from Al Jazeera."
Qatar, meanwhile, welcomed Muslim Brotherhood members who fled 
people that Egypt’s military leaders called “terrorists”.
So leaders in the GCC started to think Qatar had gone rogue.
Those countries broke off diplomatic ties in 2014.   
And they wanted the US to back them up.
The Saudis were really pissed off by the Obama administration foreign policy
towards the region. Obama was mainly occupied with the negotiation with Iran
over its nuclear program, and he was less sensitive
towards the concerns of the Saudis.
But when Donald Trump entered the White House, things changed.
When Trump actually came to power in 2017, the Saudis, the Emiratis
the Bahrainis and the Egyptians who already had problems with Qatar 
because of the Arab Spring and because of Qatar foreign relations
they decided, actually, to take it to the very end with Qatar this time.
In other words, the GCC’s main players 
said: it’s time to do something about Qatar.
So on June 5th, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt
imposed a blockade. Note that Oman and Kuwait didn’t take part.
Air, sea and land routes were suddenly closed off.
Trade in goods like dairy were banned. And Saudi Arabia even expelled 
Qatari camels. But more importantly, Qatari citizens were kicked out 
of those blockading countries and thousands of families were broken up.
We found ourselves lost. We may be separated from our children
and returned back to Bahrain. 
A lot of families are integrated between different countries in the Gulf region.
Why should we be separated because of politics?
The blockading countries also presented a list of demands.
Some of the big ones were that Qatar downgrade diplomatic ties with Iran
shut down Al Jazeera altogether, and cut ties to so-called terrorist groups.
We have taken this step with great pain in order to make sure that Qatar 
understands that these policies are not acceptable and not sustainable
and that they must change.
But Qatar maintained that it did not support terrorism  
and refused to budge on their demands.
We believe that the main issue is not about terrorism,  the main issue is 
opposing differences and the way to shut the other voice, and maybe
they are looking at Qatar that it's punching over its weight.
The blockade did initially impact Qatar’s economy. 
But it did bounce back after Qatar took steps like shoring up its banks
trading more with Iran and Turkey
and manufacturing its own products to avoid relying on imports.
So with Qatar doing its thing and the blockading countries refusing 
to lift the embargo, there’ve been few signs of a breakthrough.
But some suspect that with the Gulf cup going ahead as normal
these former allies might slowly be opening up to the idea of playing nice.
