What's Behind Lower Gas-Prices and the Bombings of
Syria and of Eastern Ukraine: Obama Represents U.S.
& Arabic Aristocracies, Against Those of Russia &
IranBy Eric Zuesse: The following report reconstructs U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy, on the basis of what I have deemed to be reliable news accounts of his Administration's actions, not of its mere words. This reconstruction is grounded in the linked-to news-sources, all of which I have investigated and verified -- and some of which I wrote. The ones that I wrote are themselves sourced to the links within those reports, all of which I have, likewise, personally checked and verified. Consequently, the chain of verifications back to this reconstruction's primary sources is available to any online reader, and every reader is encouraged to track back to its ultimate source any allegation that might appear to be at all questionable to him or her in the present article. Not only will this exercise be helpful to the reader concerning that given point at question, but it will open that person to an associated world of deeper discovery, which I hope that this news-report and analysis will do for many readers, and which is the reason I wrote it: so as to share with others what I and other careful and cautious researchers have discovered, though it might be, in some instances, starkly at variance with what our Government, and most of the press, have been more commonly presenting as ‘truth' about these matters. At least, this exercise will provide an alternative frame of reference regarding these issues, an alternative possibility to consider, and which I have verified, from every root to every branch, in this tree of historical reconstruction of the events.
INTRODUCTION:
November
07, 2014 "ICH"
-
Why is the
Ukrainian Government, which the U.S. supports,
bombing the pro-Russian residents who live
in Ukraine's own southeast?
Why is the
American Government, which aims to oust Syria's
leader Bashar al-Assad, bombing his main enemy,
ISIS?
I find that
both bombings are different parts of the same
Obama-initiated business-operation, in which the
American aristocracy, Saudi aristocracy, and Qatari
aristocracy, work together, to grab dominance over
supplying energy to the world's biggest
energy-market, Europe, away from Russia, which
currently is by far Europe's largest
energy-supplier.
Here are the
actual percentage-figures on that:
Russia supplies 38%, #2 Norway (the only
European nation among the top 15) supplies 18%, and
all other countries collectively supply a grand
total of 44%. That's it; that's all --
in the world's largest energy-market. Russia is the
lone giant. But U.S. President Obama's team want to
change that. (Unfortunately, the residents in
southeastern Ukraine are being bombed and
driven out to become refugees in Russia
, as an essential part of this
operation to choke off Russia's gas-supply to
Europe.)
Obama has
initiated, and is leading, this international
aristocratic team, consisting of the U.S.
aristocracy and Sunni Moslem aristocracies -- the
Saudi and the Qatari royal families -- to choke off
Russia's economic lifeblood from those European
energy sales, and to transfer lots of this business,
via new oil and gas pipeline contracts and new
international trade-deals, over to the royal
families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Those royals, in
turn, are assisting Obama in the overthrow of the
key Russia-allied leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad,
who has performed an indispensable role in blocking
any such massive expansion of Saudi and Qatari
energy-traffic into Europe, and who has thus been a
vital protector of Russia's dominance in the
European energy-market.
America's
aristocracy would be benefited in many ways from
this changeover to Europe's increasing dependence
upon those Sunni Moslem nations, which have long
been allied with U.S. oil companies, and away from
the Shiite Moslem nation of Iran, and from its key
backer, Russia.
The most
important way that America's aristocrats would
benefit would be the continuance, for the indefinite
future, of the U.S. dollar's role as the
international reserve currency, in which energy and
energy-futures are traded. The Sunni nations are
committed to continued dominance of the dollar, and
Wall Street depends on that continuance. It's also
one of the reasons the U.S. Treasury's sales of U.S.
Federal debt around the world have been as
successful as they are. This also provides essential
support to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Furthermore,
Obama's effort to force the European Union to weaken
their anti-global-warming standards so as to allow
European imports of oil from the exceptionally
carbon-gas-generating Athabasca Canada tar sands --
which are approximately 40% owned by America's Koch
brothers, the rest owned by other U.S. and allied
oil companies -- would likewise reduce Europe's
current dependency upon Russian energy sources, at
the same time as it would directly benefit U.S.
energy-producers.
Obama has been working hard for those oil
companies to become enabled to sell such oil into
Europe .
And, finally,
the extension of U.S. fracking technology into
Ukraine, and perhaps ultimately even into some EU
nations, where it has been strongly resisted, might
likewise reduce the enormous flow of European cash
into Russian Government coffers to pay for Russian
gas (which doesn't even require fracking).
In other
words, the wars in both Syria and Ukraine are being
fought basically in order to grab the European
energy market, away from Russia, somewhat in the
same way (though far more violently) as Iran's share
of that market was previously grabbed away by means
of the U.S.-led sanctions against that country. The
current bombing campaigns in both Syria and Ukraine
are directed specifically against Iran's chief ally,
Russia.
First, will be
discussed here the bombing-campaign against Iran's
and Russia's ally Assad in Syria; then against the
residents of the ethnic-Russian areas of Ukraine.
SYRIA:
As the
articles that are headlined below document, there
has been proposed, in order to promote
Russian gas flowing into Europe, an eastbound
Iran-Iraq-Syria-Turkey-Europe gas pipeline (but
sanctions stopped that); and there was also
proposed, in order to undercut Russian
gas flowing into Europe, a northbound
Qatar-Saudi-Jordan-Syria-Turkey-Europe gas pipeline
-- those being two different and competing ways of
supplying gas into Europe.
Russia's ally
Syria is crucial to both proposed
pipelines, which means that Assad has needed to be
overthrown in order for the northbound pipeline from
Qatar to be constructed and so to compete against
Russia's gas-supplies to Europe.
There have
also been some differences between the Saudi and
Qatari royal families as regards their motives for
removing the Shiite Assad from leading Syria.
Qatar's royals (
and also Turkey's aristocrats )
want him to be replaced by an anti-Iranian, Sunni
Moslem Brotherhood leader (the type of person that
Obama
euphemistically calls by such terms as
‘moderate Moslems' though they were hardly that in
Egypt once they gained power there ).
Qatar's royals have protected themselves from being
overthrown by fundamentalist Moslems; they've done
it especially by supporting the Moslem Brotherhood
as a means of displaying their own loyalty to Moslem
clerics. (The public trusts the clerics, but doesn't
trust the aristocrats; and, like everywhere,
aristocrats obtain their perceived ‘legitimacy' from
the local clergy, whom aristocrats buy-off with
special favors.) The Moslem Brotherhood want to
control Syria, and would love to approve a gas
pipeline from Qatar through Syria to Europe, to
reward their chief benefactor, Qatar's royals. As
for the Saudi royals, they want Assad to be replaced
by an anti-Iranian, Sunni ISIS leader, who will
represent the Sauds' Wahhabist sect in Islam, which
provides Saudi royals their ‘legitimacy.'
(Saudi royals say they don't like Al Qaeda and ISIS,
but that's said mainly for public consumption in the
West.)
Right now, Saudi Arabia supplies less than
5% of Europe's energy, which is a mere
one-eighth of what Russia does. So: each of
these two royal families relies primarily upon a
different category of Islamists. Obama prefers the
‘moderate' Muslim Brotherhood to the extremist ISIS,
but Saudi royals accept his having that preference,
because any way to weaken Iran and its backer Russia
is fine with them, especially since it would open
wide the enormous European market for their oil.
Other internal
conflicts also exist within Obama's team. For
example, an expert on these matters, Felix Imonti,
explained to me in a personal communication, that,
“Qatar ... abandoned the [pipeline] plan in 2010 for
a very simple reason. Saudi Arabia will not permit a
pipeline to be constructed across its territory.
Qatar is interested along with Turkey in installing
a MB government in Syria. ... The Saudi objective is
to drive out the Iranians from Syria.” The Saudis'
“objective was to establish a Wahhabi based
[fundamentalist Moslem] state that would include
western Iraq with Syria,” which, of course, is what
ISIS is all about. Imonti also says: “Egypt [except
for the brief time when it was controlled by the MB]
is a bought puppet of Saudi Arabia. The Egyptians
are bombing Qatari groups in Libya.” That Egyptian
action is indirectly a Saudi attack against the
Qatari royals' own support-base. These issues
between the two royal families are like squabbles
within a family: more is shared in common than
splits them apart. Obama's decisions are often
determinative on such matters.
So, America's
aristocracy supports both the Saudi and the Qatari
aristocracies, despite their disagreements, in order
to defeat the aristocracies in Russia, China, and
the other “BRIC” countries.
Or, as
President Obama's
speech at West Point, on 28 May 2014
, propagandized for this view on the
part of America's aristocracy: "Russia's aggression
toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in
Europe, while China's economic rise and military
reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India,
rising middle classes compete with us.” So, Obama
made clear to the graduating cadets that the BRIC
countries are the enemy, from the standpoint of
America's aristocracy. Ours want to crush the
aristocrats in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Though it's alright for those other countries to
produce more, that's true only if American
aristocrats control the local ones, like in any
other international empire -- not if the
local aristocrats there do. Similarly, for example,
the British Empire didn't wish for local aristocrats
in India to be in control, but only for those client
aristocrats to be of use . Obama added,
placing a nationalistic coloration on his promotion
of America's empire: “The United States is and
remains the one indispensable nation.” He promised
to keep it that way: “That has been true for the
century passed [sp.: past [[somebody at the White
House didn't know the difference between ‘past' and
‘passed']] and it will be true for the century to
come.”
An important
asset of the American aristocracy happens to be
shale-gas-fracking technology, which is
overwhelmingly owned by America's aristocrats
. Though Qatar is a major gas-producer,
it has no need for fracking, and so is merely a
gas-competitor in that regard, but they do share
America's pro-Sunni, anti-Assad goal, and also
America's anti-Russian goal. Although Qatar ships
most of its gas into Asia, they'd like to have some
way to pipe it more nearby, into Europe, to undercut
Russia's Gazprom. And that's why the U.S. is working
with Qatar to bump Assad from Syria.
The Saudis are
actually doing the most of all to defeat Russia, by
driving oil prices down so low as to upset Russia's
economic plans, which have been based upon minimum
$100/barrel projections. We're already around 10%
below that. As Imonti writes, “The Saudis can
sustain these lower prices for seven or eight years
while drawing on their foreign reserves to cover the
deficits. They could very well be trying to break
the fracking business in the U.S. that has high
production costs. [Of course, America's gas
aristocrats won't like that, but Obama has to
balance multiple sub-constituencies, including
Qatar's royals.] They might also be directing the
target towards Russia that supports Assad and Iran.
They could be doing all of the above with one
action.” If the Sauds keep this up “for seven or
eight years,” then Russia will be hit a lot harder
than Russia is being hit, or is likely to be hit, by
any economic sanctions.
Qatar has been
the main funder of the overthrow-Assad movement, for
the Moslem Brotherhood; and Saudi Arabia has been
the main funder of the overthrow-Assad movement, for
ISIS. Both are Sunni organizations. However, Qatar
has also funded ISIS. Obama, when he decided to bomb
ISIS, was acting on behalf of America's aristocrats,
but Saudi and Qatari aristocrats might have felt
differently about it. He possessed the freedom to do
this, which those aristocrats don't have, because
everyone in the Islamic world knows that Obama is no
Moslem; everyone understands that America is in a
permanent state of war against fundamentalist Islam
of all sorts. Only Moslem aristocrats need the
approval of Islamic fundamentalists. In America,
aristocrats don't even need the approval of
Christian fundamentalists, the type of
fundamentalists that might be able to threaten their
authority in the West (since the West is
predominantly Christian, not Moslem). And the same
is true regarding Jewish aristocrats in Israel:
aristocrats fear only their local majority clergy.
That's basic survival-knowledge for aristocrats,
anywhere, in order to be able to get the public to
accept the rightfulness of the aristocracy itself
there.
So, ISIS gets
money from
the aristocracies of Saud, and of Qatar (and
also, more recently, of Kuwait) --
whatever is needed, in order for those aristocrats
to retain the loyalty of their local clerics, and
thus their public. It's like aristocrats do in every
country, getting “God's approval” of their wealth,
by throwing a few coins to the preacher, the local
mouthpiece for “God,” thus relying upon the public's
trust in clergy. Even Mafia aristocrats do it. That
has been the way of conservatism for millennia; it's
the way conservatism works. In more-recent
centuries, a modified version of that trick has
grown up, as liberalism, in which the aristocrats'
validation comes instead from scholars, and so
aristocrats throw a few coins to them, instead of to
clerics. But it's no different -- it's
authoritarianism, equally in either case. It's
purchased authority. Aristocrats don't really fear
the clergy, nor the scholars: they actually fear the
public, such as what happened during the French
Revolution, and during the Russian Revolution. But
that's another story altogether, going back
millennia, actually.
The recent
bombings in Syria, and in Ukraine, are a
business-operation being carried out as a war (and
also very profitable for U.S. armaments-makers, who
likewise are controlled by America's aristocrats and
so this is a double-whammy for America's aristocracy
-- and U.S. arms-makers have consequently been
soaring on the stock market). It's basically a grab
by U.S. and Sunni aristocrats, from Russian and
Shiite aristocrats, of the market to supply oil and
gas into Europe. And it provides other advantages,
too, for U.S. aristocrats.
Natural gas,
especially of the non-fracked variety, is generally
regarded as the bridge-fuel to get our planet to
being able to survive long-term while fusion and
renewable forms of energy come online as
cost-competitive. Fracking is, as has been
mentioned, an American technology, but it's widely
resisted even within American-allied nations. The
U.S. Government can impose it upon the American
people, because they are trusting in ‘free
enterprise,' but other governments are having a hard
time trying to impose it on theirs. That public
resistance in Europe is giving protection to the
gas-import markets there; and this has benefited
Russia, their major existing gas-supplier.
Russia has
the world's largest proven reserves of
natural gas , and that's without their
even needing to use fracking-techniques in order to
get at it. #2 Iran has 69% as much gas, and is
allied with Russia, and it also doesn't frack. But
sanctions close them out of Europe. Then #3 Qatar,
at 47%, is allied with U.S. oil companies, but has
no need to frack. Then #4 Turkmenistan, 37%, is
allied with Russia, and also doesn't frack. Then #5
U.S., 20%, is allied with U.S. oil companies, and
only fracks. Then #6 Saudi Arabia, 17%, is also
allied with U.S. oil companies, and doesn't need to
frack.
The European
Union bans fracking, because they have
environmentally-concerned publics. But U.S. and
other Western corporate-owned oil companies want to
frack gas in Europe, just as they do in America; and
the new Ukrainian Government is desperate enough to
want their land to be fracked.
UKRAINE:
The main
shale-gas (fracking) field in Ukraine is Yuzivska,
right in the middle of the Donbass region, where the
residents don't want fracking and don't want U.S.
rule (which includes fracking). Furthermore, the
people there reject the legitimacy of the
Obama coup in Ukraine this year in February
, and of its subsequent
rulers of Ukraine , who have
been
bombing them , because
90% of the voters in that region had voted
for the pro-Russian President whom Obama had
overthrown , and because the new,
anti-Russian, regime doesn't want those people to
stay (or at least
to stay alive ) in Ukraine,
because otherwise that post-coup regime would become
ousted if any nationwide election would ever again
be held throughout Ukraine. This tactic of killing
unwanted voters is a variant of what the Republican
Party does in the U.S., simply trimming the
voter-rolls in order to create a more-favorable
“voting public.” Except that it's being done in
Ukraine by
bombs and bullets , rather than
by limiting or restricting ballots.
“The West,” or
the allies of Sunni aristocrats, are now bombing
intensively, both in Ukraine and in Syria; and, in
both instances, the argument for the bombings is to
spread “democracy” there. It's giving a bad name to
‘democracy,' to anyone who misbelieves that this is
it.
BACK AGAIN TO
SYRIA:
Below are the
main sources that describe the Middle Eastern part
of this Obama-Putin power-struggle, that is the part
in Syria instead of in Ukraine. This is how
international business is actually carried out –
it's a perfect libertarian world, since there is no
international government; this market is unregulated
to so extreme an extent that even ethnic cleansings
and mass-murders go unpunished -- it's a pure free
market, which operates on an international scale
(the only scale where libertarianism exists in even
nearly this pure a form); this libertarianism is an
exemplar of the conservative ideal: pure liberty for
aristocrats, total lack of
accountability . If anything,
Barack Obama might be even more of a conservative
than was George W. Bush:
under Obama, the IRS specifically allows
blatantly illegal tax-evasion by the mega-rich to go
uninvestigated and unpunished, and concentrates
virtually all its resources on pursuing two-bit
tax-cheats. That's what ‘democracy' has
come to in America. In America's client-states, such
as in the Middle East and (since February) in
Ukraine, it's even worse.
The first of
these articles explains why the price of oil has
been plunging, and who has been behind that:
---
"The Secret
Stupid Saudi-US Deal on Syria"
WILLIAM
ENGDAHL | OCTOBER 24, 20143 COMMENTS
The
Kerry-Abdullah Secret Deal & An Oil-Gas Pipeline War
---
"Why Oil Is
Plunging: The Other Part Of The "Secret Deal"
Between The US And Saudi Arabia"
Tyler Durden on
10/11/2014 18:19 -0400
… [Excerpt:]
Today's Brent closing price: $90. Russia's oil
price budget for the period 2015-2017? $100.
Which means much more "forced Brent liquidation" is
in the cards in the coming weeks as America's
suddenly once again very strategic ally, Saudi
Arabia, does everything in its power to break Putin.
[Note: The Russian Government's fiscal projections
were based on $100/barrel, but the Saudi-forced-down
price was now $89/barrel. How long would Saudis and
Qataris keep this up? And how long would Assad hold
off ISIS? Big bets are being made on both.]
—
"A Look Inside
The Secret Deal With Saudi Arabia That Unleashed The
Syrian Bombing"
Tyler
Durden on 09/25/2014 10:17 -0400
… [Excerpt:]
Said otherwise, the pound of flesh demanded by Saudi
Arabia to "bless" US airstrikes and make them appear
as an act of some coalition, is the removal of the
Assad regime. Why? So that, as we also
explained last year, the holdings of the great Qatar
natural gas fields can finally make their way onward
to Europe, which incidentally is also America's
desire -- what better way to punish Putin for his
recent actions than by crushing the main leverage
the Kremlin has over Europe?
—
"
Meet Saudi Arabia's Bandar
bin Sultan: The Puppetmaster Behind The Syrian War"
Tyler
Durden on 08/27/2013 15:21 -0400
… [Excerpt:]
Of course, there is Syria:
Regarding the
Syrian issue, the Russian president responded to
Bandar, saying, “Our stance on Assad will never
change. We believe that the Syrian regime is
the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and
not those liver eaters. During the Geneva I
Conference, we agreed with the Americans on a
package of understandings, and they agreed that the
Syrian regime will be part of any settlement. Later
on, they decided to renege on Geneva I. In all
meetings of Russian and American experts,
we reiterated our position. In his upcoming meeting
with his American counterpart John Kerry, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will stress the
importance of making every possible effort
to rapidly reach a political settlement to the
Syrian crisis so as to prevent further bloodshed.”
Alas, that has
failed.
So what are
some of the stunning disclosures by the Saudis?
Bandar told
Putin, “There are many common values and goals that
bring us together, most notably the fight against
terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia,
the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting
and consolidating international peace and security.
The terrorist threat is growing in light of the
phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have lost
some regimes. And what we got in return
were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the
experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and
the extremist groups in Libya. ... As an example, I
can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter
Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next
year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security
of the games are controlled by us, and they will not
move in the Syrian territory's direction
without coordinating with us. These groups do not
scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian
regime but they will have no role or influence in
Syria's political future.”
—
"Putin Laughs
At Saudi Offer To Betray Syria In Exchange For
‘Huge' Arms Deal"
Tyler
Durden on 08/08/2013 11:20 -0400
—
"Mystery
Sponsor Of Weapons And Money To Syrian Mercenary
‘Rebels' Revealed"
Tyler
Durden on 05/16/2013 19:12 -0400
... [Excerpt:]
So there you have it: Qatar doing everything it can
to promote bloodshed, death and destruction by
using not Syrian rebels, but mercenaries:
professional citizens who are paid handsomely to
fight and kill members of the elected regime
(unpopular as it may be), for what? So that the
unimaginably rich emirs of Qatar can get even
richer. Although it is not as if Russia is
blameless: all it wants is to preserve its own
strategic leverage over Europe by being the biggest
external provider of natgas to the continent through
its own pipelines. Should Nabucco come into
existence, Gazpromia would be very, very angry and
make far less money!
—
The final
source will be posted here in full, because it goes
closest to the reason for our bombing Syria:
"Qatar: Rich
and Dangerous"
17 September
2012, by Felix Imonti
The first
concern of the Emir of Qatar is the prosperity and
security of the tiny kingdom. To achieve that, he
knows no limits.
Stuck between
Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with the third
largest natural gas deposit in the world. The gas
gives the nearly quarter of a million
Qatari citizens the highest per capita income on the
planet and provides 70 percent of government
revenue.
How does an
extremely wealthy midget with two potentially
dangerous neighbors keep them from making an
unwelcomed visit? Naturally, you have someone bigger
and tougher to protect you.
Of course,
nothing is free. The price has been to allow the
United States to have two military bases in a
strategic location. According to
Wikileaks diplomatic cables, the Qataris are even
paying sixty percent of the costs.
Having tanks
and bunker busting bombs nearby will discourage
military aggression, but it does nothing to curb the
social tumult that has been bubbling for decades in
the Middle Eastern societies. Eighty-four years ago,
the Moslem Brotherhood arose in Egypt because of the
presence of foreign domination by Great Britain and
the discontent of millions of the teaming masses
yearning to be free. Eighty-four years later, the
teaming masses are still yearning.
Sixty-five
percent of the people in the Middle East are under
twenty-nine years of age. It is this desperate angry
group that presents a danger that armies cannot
stop. The cry for their dignity, “I am a man,” is
the sound that sends terror through governments. It
is this overwhelming force that the Emir of Qatar
has been able to deflect.
A year after
he deposed his father in 1995, Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa Al-Thani established the Al-Jazeera
television satellite news network. He invited some
of the radical Salafi preachers that had been given
sanctuary in Qatar to address the one and a half
billion Moslems around the world. They had their
electronic soapbox and the card to an ATM, but there
was a price.
The price was
silence. They could speak to the world and arouse
the fury in Egypt or Libya, but they would have to
leave their revolution outside of Qatar or the
microphone would be switched off and the ATM would
stop dispensing the good life.
The Moslem
Brotherhood, that is a major force across the
region, dissolved itself in Qatar in 1999. Jasim
Sultan, a member of the former
organization, explained that the kingdom was in
compliance with Islamic law. He heads the state
funded Awaken Project that publishes moderate
political and philosophical literature.
How Qatar has
benefited from networking with the Salafis is
illustrated by the connections with Tunisia where
Qatar is making a large investment
in telecommunications. Tunisian Foreign Minister
Rafiq Abdulsalaam was head of the Research and
Studies Division in the Al Jazeera Centre in Doha.
His father-in-law Al Ghanouchi is the head of
the Tunisian Moslem Brotherhood party.
Over much of
the time since he seized power, Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa Al-Thani has followed the policy of personal
networking, being proactive in business and neutral
on the international stage. The Emir is generous
with the grateful, the Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund
bargains hard in the board room and the kingdom
makes available Qatar's Good Offices to resolve
disputes.
Qatar's
foreign policy made an abrupt shift when the kingdom
entered the war against Qaddafi. The kingdom sent
aircraft to join NATO forces. On the ground, Qatari
special forces armed, trained, and led Libyans
against Qaddafi's troops.
The head of
the National Transition Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil
attributed much of the success of the revolution to
the efforts of Qatar that he said had spent two
billion dollars. He commented, “Nobody traveled to
Qatar without being given a sum of money by
the government.”
Qatar had ten
billion dollars in investments in Libya to protect.
The Barwa Real Estate Company alone had two billion
committed to the construction of a beach resort near
Tripoli.
While the
bullets were still flying, Qatar signed
eight billion dollars in agreements with the NTC.
Just in case things with the NTC didn't work out,
they financed rivals Abdel Hakim Belhaj, leader of
the February 17 Martyr's Brigade, and Sheik Ali
Salabi, a radical cleric who had been exiled in
Doha.
If Qatar's
investments of ten billion dollars seem substantial,
the future has far more to offer. Reconstruction
costs are estimated at seven hundred billion
dollars. The Chinese and Russians had left behind
between them thirty billion in incomplete contracts
and investments and all of it is there for the
taking for those who aided the revolution.
No sooner had
Qaddafi been caught and shot, Qatar approached
Bashar Al-Assad to establish a transitional
government with the Moslem Brotherhood. As you would
expect, relinquishing power to the Brotherhood was
an offer that he could refuse. It didn't take long
before he heard his sentence pronounced in January
2012 on the CBS television program, 60 Minutes by
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
The Emir
declared that foreign troops should be sent into
Syria. At the Friends of Syria conference
in February, Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim
al-Thani said, "We should do whatever necessary to
help [the Syrian opposition], including giving them
weapons to defend themselves."
Why would
Qatar want to become involved in Syria where they
have little invested? A map reveals that the kingdom
is a geographic prisoner in a small enclave on the
Persian Gulf coast.
It relies upon
the export of LNG, because it is restricted by Saudi
Arabia from building pipelines to distant markets.
In 2009, the proposal of a pipeline to Europe
through Saudi Arabia and Turkey to the Nabucco
pipeline was considered, but Saudi Arabia that is
angered by its smaller and much louder brother has
blocked any overland expansion.
Already the
largest LNG producer, Qatar will not increase the
production of LNG. The market is becoming glutted
with eight new facilities in Australia coming online
between 2014 and 2020.
A saturated
North American gas market and a far more competitive
Asian market leaves only Europe. The discovery in
2009 of a new gas field near Israel, Lebanon,
Cyprus, and Syria opened new possibilities to bypass
the Saudi Barrier and to secure a new source of
income. Pipelines are in place already in Turkey to
receive the gas. Only Al-Assad is in the way.
Qatar along
with the Turks would like to remove Al-Assad and
install the Syrian chapter of the
Moslem Brotherhood. It is the best organized
political movement in the chaotic society and can
block Saudi Arabia's efforts to install a more
fanatical Wahhabi based regime. Once the Brotherhood
is in power, the Emir's broad connections with
Brotherhood groups throughout the region should make
it easy for him to find a friendly ear and an open
hand in Damascus.
A control
centre has been established in the Turkish city of
Adana near the Syrian border to direct the rebels
against Al-Assad. Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister
Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Saud asked to have
the Turks establish a joint Turkish, Saudi, Qatari
operations center. “The Turks liked the idea of
having the base in Adana so that they
could supervise its operations” a source in the Gulf
told Reuters.
The fighting
is likely to continue for many more months, but
Qatar is in for the long term. At the end, there
will be contracts for the massive reconstruction and
there will be the development of the gas fields. In
any case, Al-Assad must go. There is nothing
personal; it is strictly business to preserve the
future tranquility and well-being of Qatar.
X art by WB7
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