That’s the words on everybody’s lips these days. It’s a study in geopolitics. To better understand the present, we shall do a bit of background.

Qatar gained independence from Britain in 1971. Britain was withdrawing from most of its overseas possessions due to financial pressure.  It’s a very small country ruled by the Al Thani family. Its current leader is Thamim al Thani.

In 1940 oil was discovered. Reserves are currently standing at 15 billion barrels of oil, with a daily production of some 600,000 barrels.

In 1991, Qatar began developing gas infrastructure in the North Field. See map. Its natural gas reserves are around 9 trillion cubic meters, worth some $2.5 trillion. Its annual production of gas is around 200 bcm. Combined oil and gas revenues amount to some $70 billion per year. It exports gas in a liquid form, known as liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

In 1993, the TV station Al Jazeera was established. By none other than Louis Rothschild of the French branch. Why would the Rothschilds do such a thing? This family is nothing but long-term planners. The aim was to show to the Arab street images of various happenings in the region which were not aired by CNN or BBC. In this way, Al Jazeera would show to the Arab street many things that would inflame the Arabs, and show the West in a negative light. In this manner, the result would be greater distrust between the Arabs and the West, especially the Americans. There would be no hope of friendship or reconciliation between America and the Arabs.

Thus, when a world war breaks out in the region, the Rothshilds would be sure that the West would not come to the aid of the Arabs, or worse, side against Israel.  More than two decades have passed since then, and the results are obvious for all to see.

Qatar began shipping its first cargo of LNG in 1996. And it has not looked back since then. A year later, Hamad bin Thani deposed his father, who was the ruler at that time. The reason was that the father did not like the close ties developing between Hamad and the Rothschilds. Ever since then, Qatar has aligned itself to London. Study the list of investments Qatar’s QIA (Qatar Investment Authority) has made. They are all tied into various Rothschild companies.

In 2002, as the US was preparing to invade Iraq, Saudi Arabia (not willing to be a part of this) told the Americans to move their military out of Saudi Arabia. So, in August 2002, the US left Saudi Arabia, and moved to Qatar, and established themselves at the Al Udeid Air Base.

In 2010, Qatar, in conjunction with London and New York, unleashed the Arab Spring. In February 2011, Egypt’s Mubarak was toppled from power. Within 2 years, Libya’s Qaddafi fell. Qatar was the chief Arab paymaster for the Muslim Brotherhood, a dangerous organization. The Muslim Brotherhood, or MB, was created by the British in 1927, and later taken over by the US in 1957. This organization is only Muslim by name, but in deeds and intentions, it has always worked against the interests of Islam and the Arabs. Read our article and Special Report on the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2009, Hamad al Thani paid Syrian ruler Basher Assad a visit, and proposed building a pipeline to transport Qatari gas through to Syria, and on towards Turkey and Europe. Assad politely declined this proposal, saying that he would not work against Russia and Gazprom, since they have always supported his father and country. A few months later, Assad was visited by Iran and Iraq, with the same proposal. This time, Assad accepted, and signed an agreement. This would entail building a 1,600 kms pipeline, transporting some 20 bcm a year of gas to Europe.

Within a few weeks, the US began its interference in Syria. To date, after more than 6 years of war, Syria has lost 500,000 citizens, with nearly 5 million refugees, and infrastructural damage of some $300 billion!

In April 2013, US Secretary of State, John Kerry paid a visit to Saudi King Abdullah, and told him that the US would not stand as a guarantor for the Kingdom’s eastern oil fields. King Abdullah replied ”God is our protector!”, and “ we don’t need your protection, and we never asked for it in the first place. But, it was Nelson Rockefeller and your President Roosevelt who insisted on protecting us from the British”.

Two months later, Mohammed Morsi, leader of Egypt, and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was toppled in a military coup. This was done at the behest of Saudi Arabia, as Egypt is considered as Saudi Arabia’s second reserve army – the first being Pakistan. Not long thereafter, Qatar began attacking Egypt’s western borders by funding radical militant groups in Libya. And, more covertly, using Bedouin tribes in the Sinai to cripple Egypt’s’ military morale, manpower, and infrastructure. The ultimate beneficiary of this attack on Egypt is none other than Israel.

Between installing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and causing mayhem in Libya, and further harming Egyptian military power in the Sinai, the other Arab leaders had had enough. In 2014, they cut off ties with Qatar and recalled their ambassadors. Qatar was issued with a list of demands, which were ignored.

With Trump taking office in January, Washington’s Fortress America plan was put into action. This plan entailed the blowing up of the Middle East, in order to deny its economic rivals access to oil.

In 2005 Qatar and Iran had come to an agreement in respect of their shared gas field – the North Dome/South Pass gas field. As per the 2005 Moratorium Agreement, Qatar agreed to hold back further development of its side of the gas field, in order to allow Iran to catch up with Qatar’s extraction rate. This Moratorium would last for 2 years. In April of 2017, Qatar and Iran agreed that the Moratorium would be cancelled, as both sides are ready to JOINTLY DEVELOP the gas of this field.

In May 2017, Trump pays a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he meets the leaders of some 50 Muslim countries. They jointly agree to fight Iran and its proxies in the region. A sword dance by the Saudis marked the official declaration of war, Arab-style.

Qatar told the assembled leaders there that it was a mistake to work against Iran. Qatar knew it had forged closer economic/energy accords with Iran, and it didn’t want to jeopardize this.

When the news leaked that Qatar and Iran had come to terms on building a single pipeline carrying gas from this field through to Syria, Turkey, and onto Europe, both the Arabs and the US were alarmed, to put it mildly.  Look at the map, for clarification.

So, in several fields, both the US and the Arabs were angered by Qatar’s moves.

From the perspective of Saudi Arabia, Qatar had funded the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt in 2011. It had also tried to destabilize Egypt in both the Sinai and by attacking Egypt’s western borders, through the use of radical militants based in Misrata, Libya. Finally, its TV station, Al Jazeera, was inflaming the Arab street, and working against Arab regional security interests; and, of course, its re-alignment with Iran regarding the gas field and the gas pipeline through Syria.

For 6 years, Qatar, along with the Arabs and the US, destabilized Syria, in order to deny Iran’s pipeline project from being realized. More than 500,000 deaths, millions of refugees, and $300 billion of damage later, a common agreement was forged between Qatar and Iran. So, the Syrian war was a “mistake”?

As far as the US was concerned, it had the same attitudes towards Qatar, on all of the above issues, with the exception of Egypt. In Egypt, the CIA and Qatar worked closely to topple Mubarak and install Morsi to power. But, three issues were the key to understand why the US wants to topple Thamimm al Thani from power in Qatar.

The answers to the above are in the next article, Qatar- in the cross hairs of New York.