Okaz

Turkey and Qatar saw in the case of Khashoggi a perfect chance to hit hard at Saudi Arabia. They have invested a lot on this case.

WHEN all attempts by Turkey by leaking information on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi failed to achieve their desired goals despite the fact that the operation was managed by the Erdogan government with the help of the official Qatari media, led by Al-Jazeera, and the shadow media financed and managed by Doha, the two countries began reevaluating their stand on Saudi Arabia and specifically Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

This reevaluation is explained through their behavior. They cannot co-exist with the Saudi crown prince and they cannot wait for another 50 years for a strong and solid leader like him to emerge.

Qatar and Turkey built their strategic position based on three main points in order to confront Saudi Arabia and attack Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

First, they worked continuously to create a rift between Riyadh and Washington aiming to end the strong alliance between the two countries, which has lasted for more than 80 years.

This is what Qatar has been trying to do since 2001 when they took advantage of the events of 9/11. At that time, the Qatari media machine worked hard to point fingers at Saudi Arabia.

Qatar’s then foreign minister, Hamad Bin Jassim, personally went to Washington and met with many members of the US Congress as well as independent politicians. He also met with media personnel and heads of civil society organizations trying to instigate them against Saudi Arabia and urging them to call upon the US administration to break its ties with the Kingdom. They put the blame for the sad events of 9/11 on the political and religious system in Saudi Arabia. Later it was proved that Al-Qaeda, the military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood organization and an ally of Qatar, was behind the attacks.

Today, Turkey treads the same line, trying to break up the alliance between Saudi Arabia and the US. They believe that the US abandoning Saudi Arabia will be the first step toward destroying the Kingdom that stood as a barrier in front of them against their dark plots and devious conspiracies.

Secondly, they tried to put obstacles on the path of the crown prince through character assassination. They tried to tarnish his global image by publishing fake news about him in the foreign media using the Qatari money.

Thirdly, they tried to instigate multinational companies and institutions to stop dealing with Saudi Arabia and not to participate in the Saudi development projects. Any development in Riyadh means a lack of development in Qatar and Turkey. This is something that is bothering Turkey, Qatar, Iran and a number of Western powers.

Turkey and Qatar saw in the case of Khashoggi a perfect chance to hit hard at Saudi Arabia. They have invested a lot on this case. The result at the end came in favor of Saudi Arabia and its crown prince. This is not vain talk but it is based on political and economic realities on the ground. The sight of world leaders coming forward to greet the crown prince and Western leaders resorting their relations with Saudi Arabia, in addition to energy and oil companies rushing to Riyadh to sign contracts to invest in the King Salman energy city, are all indications of an apparent Saudi victory.

Will Qatar and Turkey accept these disappointing results of their campaign? Not, of course. Today they are trying to reach out to Saudi Arabia in the injury time in a vain attempt to achieve what they could not in the past two months of their vicious campaign against the country.

Another question here is: Will they have their time or not? Are they going to pay the price for betraying Riyadh? No doubt, it depends on Riyadh’s patience and its readiness to tolerate this level of open war that was orchestrated by Istanbul, just like what they did 200 years ago. Saudi Arabia is known for its ability to take steps based on its time, not the times of others. Saudi Arabia will make its choices based on its interests and not under pressure in the face of any political crisis. This is the reason behind the Saudi success in this open war.