Still trying to recover from a series of foreign policy blunders in recent years, and not yet able to put its own house in order, why is Turkey so keen to weigh in on another regional conflict?<\/p>\n
The showdown in the Gulf between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar is, by far, the worst crisis in the Gulf since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.<\/p>\n
The region is still suffering from the fallout of the war in the Gulf over 23 years ago. It is unclear how this latest episode will end for the countries of the region, but it is not difficult to predict that a rash move, the results of which are not thought out ahead of time, would not be beneficial for Turkey.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the humanitarian consequences of Qataris being cut off by their neighbours in an extensive air, land and sea blockade is perfectly understandable.<\/p>\n
Yet, by rushing into passing a legislation to deploy troops in Qatar while claiming to be in a position to mediate in the feud, Turkey is not only punching well above its weight in regional affairs, but also displaying a clear lack of understanding about the nature of the dispute.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s stand-off between Doha and its Gulf Arab neighbours, has been years in the making. The accusations made against Qatar have progressively become stronger since Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani became Qatar\u2019s ruling emir in 2013. Aside from\u00a0Qatar\u2019s backing for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in the Middle East, Doha\u2019s friendly ties with Iran have long enraged its Saudi and Emirati rivals.<\/p>\n
As the biggest exporter of Wahabi\/Salafi Islamism around the world, Saudi Arabia\u2019s hypocrisy is truly staggering. However, for anyone familiar with Gulf politics, in the battle for hegemony in the Middle East, few can rival Qatar\u2019s insincerity.<\/p>\n
My former BBC colleague, the Middle East specialist Magdi Abdelhadi wrote<\/a> in 2013 that \u201cNext to gas, political Islam or Islamism is Qatar\u2019s second most important export<\/em>,\u201d pointing to the duplicitous nature of the Al-Thanis\u2019 foreign policy:\u00a0 \u201costensibly embracing modernity and democracy, while at the same time bankrolling and promoting\u00a0 Islamism<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n Since the Arab Spring, Qatari owned pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera has become a thorn the side of other Gulf nations’ governments.<\/p>\n