© GRAPHIC NEWS
© GRAPHIC NEWS
MIDDLE EAST
Arab nations cut ties with Qatar
June 5, 2017 - The governments of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt have broken off diplomatic relations with Qatar for opposing U.S.-Saudi calls on Muslim countries to stand united against Iran.
President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh on May 22 established the U.S.-Saudi initiative to destabilise Tehran by exploiting ethnic minorities within Iran, according to Israeli military intelligence website DEBKAfile.
Link to DEBKAfile report
On the eve of Trump’s visit, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned that the battle with the Islamic republic would be fought “inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.”
Riyadh showed its support for Iranian dissidents last July when former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, addressed a rally in Paris organised by Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a militant left-wing group that advocates the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic regime.
“Your struggle against the regime will achieve its goal, sooner or later. I, too, want the fall of the regime,” Prince Turki told the crowd.
Saudi Arabia has long accused Qatar and Iran of instigating low-level violence and protests in its predominantly Shiite, oil-rich Qatif province. Saudi Arabia has also accused Qatar of supporting groups aimed at destabilising the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Al Qaida-linked Al Nusra Front.