Photo:
© 2017 AFP / Karim Jaafar
The foreign Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdurrahman al-Thani arrives on Friday in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The meeting between the two Ministers will take place on Saturday and, as expected, the parties will discuss erupted this week a diplomatic row between Qatar and several Arab countries.
Mediation
Although Moscow has taken a fairly balanced position — the decision to break off relations with Qatar is the Arab countries, and the Russian side is not going to get involved – however this does not prevent Russia to discuss the crisis in and around Doha as partners in Qatar and the region.
This week held telephone talks of leaders of the two countries, Vladimir Putin and Emir Tamim and foreign Ministers. According to their results, Moscow reiterated its principled position that the crisis should be solved exclusively by political and diplomatic means. In addition, Putin discussed the situation of Qatar with the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the South with Iranian foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif.
Other parties to the conflict, according to some, the talks in Moscow are not yet invited. In particular, officials of Bahrain are not planning a visit to Russia in the near future in connection with the conflict of a number of Arab countries with Qatar. The same answer RIA Novosti received at the Russian Embassy in the UAE — there is no information about the forthcoming visits to Moscow Emirati officials.
According to adviser to the Director of the Russian Institute of strategic studies Elena Suponina, Russia cannot and should not become the only mediator in resolving the crisis, but to participate in the collective effort it may. The expert recalled that Russia has good relations with all parties to the conflict.
“Do not make a roll in any one or in the other direction, and it is necessary to use these contacts in order to at least try to reconcile the quarreling,” — said Suponina.
History
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt have announced the rupture of diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilize the situation in the middle East. Later, the authorities of the Eastern part of Libya, Yemen and the Maldives, Mauritania, Comoros Islands declared severance of relations with Qatar. Jordan and Djibouti have reduced the level of diplomatic relations, and Senegal and Chad have withdrawn their ambassadors. In the end to the blockade of Qatar decided not to join only two States in the cooperation Council of Persian Gulf countries — Kuwait and the Sultanate of Oman.
Qatar has denied the charges and stated that retaliation will not accept.
The crisis was triggered by posted on the website of Qatari news Agency, a statement on behalf of the Emir of Qatar, in which he urged to build relations with Iran and expressed words of support to the “Muslim Brothers”. The statement was posted a week after the summit of the countries of the Persian Gulf and the United States in Riyadh. Later the official representative the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Qatar, said that the Agency website was hacked, a speech on behalf of the Emir were published by the hackers and has nothing to do with the Qatari leader. However, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain considered this rebuttal unconvincing, and continue to insist that the words on the normalization of relations with Iran really belongs to the Emir. The main demand of the Arab countries is expulsion from Qatar of Hamas and the various factions, which in the neighbouring States consider a terrorist.
In Qatar, all charges in the sponsoring country reject terrorism and continue to insist that provoked a diplomatic conflict statement on behalf of the Emir of Qatar to the website of the local news agencies really put hackers. Who could be behind the cyberattack, the statement of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Qatar, quoted by Reuters, not reported.
The “Russian” track in Doha?
Meanwhile, the us media hastened to blame the scandal erupted in Russia. CNN citing sources said that the United States suspected “Russian hackers” breaking news Agency in Qatar, which provoked the ensuing scandal in the region. The TV station claims, citing unnamed US officials that the purpose of the hacking was creating tension between the United States and its allies, particularly Qatar. Any evidence that is not given.
The Russian foreign Minister Lavrov said that the American media did not lead any evidence of Russia’s involvement in the alleged hacking. “I think CNN, like some other media, not quite worthy to wear this title and is more of a “media disinformation”, they are just waiting for some of the history of “tainted” or some scandal to automatic, without any evidence to credit this episode in the category of sins of the Russian side, “Russian hackers” or someone else associated with the Russian Federation”, — said the Minister.
He noted that “this channel (CNN) once again took a step that undermines even more its reputation of independent, objective media as what it was created by Ted Turner”.
Bonus for the terrorists
According to Moscow, the rift between the Arab countries of Qatar was not in time, as the bonuses from this are the terrorists, said the official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
“This is not the first time that there are very complex and demonstrative steps to clarify the relationship. I think that it should be seen for what they are — country to sort things out. Another thing is that the time has been chosen complicated, given the terrorist activity of international extremist organizations”, — said the diplomat.
In her words, “unfortunately, bonuses from discord between the two countries get in the first place, international terrorists”. Zakharova pointed out that the reality of the day “requires consolidation, not separation”.