Al Jazeera Won’t Bow to Pressure
Al Jazeera Won’t Bow to Pressure Saad Al Saeedi | Al Jazeera Bureau Chief - Kuwait
It was almost 4am on the second day of Eid Al-Fitr. I was headed to Kuwait International Airport for an early flight to Oman. At the departure terminal, a young man sat next to me and without any introduction asked: “When will the [Gulf] crisis come to an end? Will Sheikh Sabah’s efforts succeed?” “It is difficult to answer your question; however, I think it will not drag on for long,” I replied. As our conversation went on, I found out that his was an agonising story. The young man’s name was Faris and he was a Saudi citizen who was due to marry a Qatari woman during the Eid festivities. His dreams were now in tatters. He was flying to convince the bride’s family not to make a decision in haste. During the crisis, no Qatari citizens were allowed into Saudi Arabia, and no Saudis were allowed to stay in Qatar. The blockade against Qatar on the 10th of Ramadan was an abrupt decision that shocked all the people of the Gulf. All air, land and sea borders with Qatar were closed. ‘What for? What did Qatar do to be treated this way?’ asked the people of the Gulf.
No evidence or conclusive answers were given by the blockading countries. The Emir of Kuwait, the late Sheikh Sabah al- Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, may he rest in peace, provided the answer on September 7, 2017. It was in response to a question I posed to him during Al Jazeera’s live coverage of a press conference between him and then US president Donald Trump. His answer contained two bombshell statements. First, that there had been no dispute at all before the crisis, which started with the hacking of Qatar News Agency. The second was that he succeeded in preventing a pre-planned military operation against Qatar. The latter was a statement that shocked us all. Within less than an hour of the conference, the four blockading countries issued statements expressing regret about Sheikh Sabah’s statements. This type of rhetoric is unusual among the brotherly Gulf states. Kuwait decided to act as an honest mediator between the brothers; a role commended by almost all countries, chiefly the US.
Since the dispute erupted, the late Emir of Kuwait took shuttle trips between the Gulf capitals in an effort to mend fences. As a result, the state of Kuwait, the Emir and some members of the government were targeted by organised malicious media campaigns, with the aim of torpedoing the mediation efforts. None of these campaigns has borne fruit. Speaking to one of the Emir’s aides, who was closely involved with the efforts to defuse the crisis, I expressed concern about these campaigns. “We are hard nuts to crack,” he replied.
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