Saudi Arabia tries to gain information for a military action in Qatar

Written by Nasser Kandil,

The Saudis intended to insult Qatar and to deal with it as a non- sovereign country, when they refused to organize Qatari pilgrimage campaign to Saudi Arabia, and when they decided to open the door individually to the Qataris who want to send an application for performing Hajj through the website, and thus they will have a temporary passport at the airport once they arrive in exchange of handing over their Qatari passports to be received again at departure. This procedure has intelligence intentions by opening the way to recruit the Qatari opposition on the occasion of Hajj, so it is difficult to trace them as traitors by their governments under the pretext of the participation in the religious rites. So those who are recruited by Saudi Arabia will be lost among the lists of pilgrims, in addition, there are not any easy means to know who have met the invitation but only by recruiting informants among their ranks, as long as the traveling must be from a third country since the Qatari passports will not get an entry visa to Saudi Arabia.

The Qataris responded by booking on the website and disconnecting it from inside Qatar, they considered that the Saudi procedure is a political exploitation of the Hajj season, they suggested to send a complaint to the International Court of Justice under this title, but the Saudi response came quickly accompanied with a solidarity of the boycotting countries which participate in the crisis with Qatar. The response considers that the doubtful Qatari position of the Saudi administration of Hajj season is a call to internationalize the religious rites, and thus it is as “an announcement of war” according to the declaration of the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir. He added that his government will reserve the right to reply to this position according to what is considered by a declaration of war.

The Saudi position was not a reaction to the Qatari position. In the Qatari responses there was an indication to the accusation of Qatar of being subordinated to Iran in the call to internationalize Hajj season, knowing that the internationalization was not a clear demand in the Qatari response as much as it is a Saudi interpretation of the Qatari legal complaint in front of the International Court which may ignore the cause, or will render a judgment to oblige Saudi Arabia to coordinate with the Qatari government in organizing the participation of its citizens away from the political relations between the two governments, but the linkage to Iran is due to the fact that Iran has called publicly for the internationalization of hajj seasons and managing them towards the permanent administration of the holy sites, it identified a formula which it tried to promote on the Islamic countries regarding this administration. But Riyadh did not issue any comment that considers the Iranian position as a declaration of war, so this means that the accusation of the declaration of war is addressed to Qatar not to the one who is proposing the administration of Hajj season by Saudi into circulation whether totally or partially.

The Saudis feel with agony whenever they remember that the crisis with Qatar lasts more than the expectation, and whenever they notice that the international and the regional situations are surrounding the crisis through a stable static, while they feel that Doha is comforted to its position in the light of the American position, which its ceiling is a media support of the Saudi position and a real dealing with how to employ the crisis in favor of US gains with each of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand there were European and Russian positions that stick not to allow the escalation of the crisis on one hand, and the Saudi control on Qatar on the other hand in the light of the Turkish-Iranian positions that support Qatar implicitly

Saudi Arabia tries to gain information under a religious pretext for the escalation militarily through the vocabulary of ” a declaration of war” in order to impose new dynamism for the crisis, whether through the escalation of war,  so this opens a negotiation on a hot skate that achieves some gains and justifies the end of the crisis from a superior Saudi position or through a military process that is desired by the Saudis from the first day, if they ensure that the process will not turn into a confrontation with Turkey or Iran on one hand, and if they ensure the quickness of the operational success. But the two matters are questionable, so trying to gain information is not the first shot in the war.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,