Qatar in shifting sands

Qatar, a Sheikhdom in the heart of the Middle East, is the world's biggest gas producer. A silent coup by a young prince in the tiny kingdom of four thousand square miles this summer has changed the entire landscape of the Middle East. Tamim al Thani, a thirty-two-year-old young prince born of a mother of humble origin overthrew his father and elder brother as the king and prime minister of the kingdom. The United States promptly recognised Tamim as the Sheikh as he promised to Washington that he would maintain the same policy regarding Iraq and Iran. In fact it is not Qatar but Iraq and Iran that matter to the United States.

The Sheikh was then on holiday in Switzerland. He just laughed at the joke of his youngest son. Qatar has been financing the Arab Spring that overthrew powerful rulers like Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Saleh allegedly with the support of the United States. Those who caused that change were of Tamim's age. They overthrew elected presidents, not monarchies. But Qatar was the first monarchy to face a regime change.

All Arab monarchs were alarmed including King Mohammad of Morocco, a personal friend of Russian President Putin. King Mohammed's grandfather as a firebrand anti imperialist who fought the British and the French had opened gate to Russia. President Putin in his first term as President made his first African visit to Morocco and made friends with Mohammed. There was reportedly a coup plot hatched by the Americans to overthrow King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia according to some unspecified rumours and reports spreading in the Middle East at that time. Nothing could be confirmed, but King Abdullah dismissed his nephew and deputy defence minister who was on holiday in Morocco. Shortly after Prince Bandar, who guided US Saudi relation, made a dramatic rush to Moscow in a special jet that was not reported in the world press at the time. Very little is known about the co relation between the two events.

Immediately after that the earth-shaking events took place in Cairo. Millions came out on the streets. Arab monarchies had changed sides. They came out in support of the Arab revolutionaries. Saudi Arabia and Qatar were believed to be supporters of Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood. It was no more. Morsi had lost his main backers. He could not withstand the assault. The regime fell. The Americans withheld their aid. But Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates came forward. One of the first acts of the new Emir Tamim was to visit Riyadh and win the support of the Gulf Co operation Council.

Qatar's upturn was unmarked by the American strategists despite their all comprehensive surveillance system. In Doha Air Port and other strategic places Nepalese is heard. The British employed the Gurkhas for Qatar's defence for a long time. British Indian rupee was long time Qatar's national currency. It was replaced by Indian and Pakistani rupees in the sixties of last century when I visited Qatar from Karachi. It was just a desert kingdom. There was no skyscraper though there was a well-protected royal palace by the water. Many people still lived in tents with their camels and sheep. There were wild gazelles. Qataris were keen fishermen. But Bangalee fishermen and sailors came from Karachi and Chittagong. Still there are some of them. Many of their descendents, now well-to-do and educated, have migrated to Canada and USA like many local Arabs.

In constant touch with the Indian sub continent Qatar is the most advanced cultural entity in the Arab gulf. It has a film industry mostly documentary that developed in the sixties. Alamgir Kabir, the epic making Bangla film producer, came across some Qatari students mostly from royal families during his stay in London and inspired them to modernisation. Alamgir Kabir with his romanticism was also inclined to tourism. I think hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers who now live in Qatar do not know this saga. Every year Qatar holds an Asian documentary film festival.

The change that took place in Qatar last summer is not disconnected with what is now happening in our country. Undefined political forces are asserting itself against religious backwardness which was patronised by the United States as a counter-force to global socialism. Russia which was ostracised as Soviet Union from the Middle East has come back with full force. USA and Iran signed a nuclear agreement with Russian and Chinese support. India too welcomed it. Russian defence and foreign ministers visited Cairo. They will provide finance for the missile defence system for the Middle East that would be paid by UAE and Saudi Arabia. Israeli and Turkish Prime Ministers visited Moscow.

Most dramatic of it is Pakistani Prime Minister after changing his pro-American army chief is likely to visit Moscow. It was the Bangladesh Liberation War that created bad blood between Moscow and Delhi.

Qatar stands on shifting sands.