TIANMUN 2019 Arab League – 1 FORUM: Arab League ISSUE: Diplomatic Crisis in Qatar STUDENT OFFICER: JiHee Kim POSITION: Deputy President of Arab League Introduction As the richest country in the world, Qatar has a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of approximately $128,060, which is pretty significant considering that Singapore, the second richest country in the world only has a GNI of $90,570. Qatar is most well-known for its oil and gas productions and is home to about 25.7 billion barrels of oil and 24.5 tcm (trillion of cubic meters) of gas reserves. Ever since the blockades caused by the diplomatic crisis in 2017, Qatar has been isolated from the remaining Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Map of Gulf Region Emirates, and Bahrain. These countries issued land, air, and sea blockades, making efforts to damage Qatar’s economy severely in a short period of time. They gave Qatar a list of thirteen demands to fulfill in merely ten days. Nonetheless, Qatar did not do as the coalition required of them, and the blockade on the country remains since. Two years have passed and the countries in the Gulf region still have not reached a negotiation, threatening the peace of the Middle Eastern region. Experts say that there seem to be no sign of this blockade ending. In fact, some experts say that the “rift might never be ended.” Background Catalyst for Conflict The diplomatic crisis in Qatar all began on May 23 of 2017, when a Qatari news agency published a false report, claiming that the country of Qatar supported a terrorist group, named Hamas, from the region of Palestine, as well as maintaining close ties with Iran and Turkey. According to the news report, the Emir, a title for a Muslim who holds a high state in power, of Qatar had stated with his own words that the Hamas was the “legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” and that Qatar had a “strong relationship” with Iran. Although the Qatar government quickly denied the fact that this was true and that TIANMUN 2019 Arab League – 2 the emir had never said such things, the news spread quickly in the Arab countries. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates claimed that despite the fact the news report was caused by a hack, its information still contained the true feelings of the country. In addition to this controversy, emails, leaked shortly after this happening, portrayed communication between the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates and authoritative figures in the foreign policy community of the United States. These emails were an issue mainly because the UAE asked the United States, explicitly, to relocate the U.S. military base out of Qatar. The other Arab countries, however, perceived the media coverage, which called this situation “shameful” and “embarrassing,” as an intentional provocation by Qatar. Blockade by Surrounding Countries It was not long after these two events when the surrounding countries in the Gulf region declared blockades against Qatar on June 9th of 2017. Starting with Bahrain, six countries (allegedly Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Egypt, and the Maldives) in total closed borders with Qatar all in one day. These countries issued land, sea, and air blockades, boycotting diplomatic relationships with Qatar completely. In addition to that, this coalition of countries, led by Saudi Arabia, issued the Thirteen Demands, demanding Qatar to meet all of them in price for the lifting of the issued embargo. It called for the country to “align itself with other Arabs and the Gulf, militarily, politically, socially and economically, as well as in financial matters”. Qatar, on the other hand, denied any relationship with terrorism, and called upon this situation as “illegal” and “unjustified.” Although negotiations have been attempted, Qatar still remains isolated from the rest of the countries in the Gulf, relying on Iran and Turkey for food sources. On the contrary, Qatar’s economic status surprising still remains strong and resilient even amid the blockade. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the estimated real GDP growth was at 2.2 percent, which is 1.6 percent more than the year of 2017. Additional Reasons for Tension There are also other factors that are said to have been the cause for the tension between Qatar and the other Gulf countries. One example is that Qatar has managed to maintain both domestic and foreign policies independent of Saudi hegemony, unlike the other Gulf countries. Qatar has always had an independent Specifically, Qatar has managed to modernize domestically and raise the living standard of the citizens on a level in which other Arab countries have been unable to achieve. Qatar’s recent support for the Arab Spring revolts also created tension as Saudi and Emirati Hacked Agency Responsible for False Report TIANMUN 2019 Arab League – 3 leaders viewed this act as an opposition towards their political ideologies for the region. Problems Raised Humanitarian Crisis Some of the people who were most affected by the blockade were the Qataris living in other Gulf countries. In response to this crisis, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates gave Qatari residents two weeks to leave the country and return back to Qatar. Other countries such as Bahrain and Egypt gave Qatari embassies merely forty-eight hours to depart, while also calling in their own diplomats back home. The same process also happened in opposite ways, causing blockading countries’ citizens to forcibly move back to their home countries. These sudden migrations caused disrupt in business, separation of families, and interruption in studies. Some people even lost their jobs amidst the crisis and were pushed to return to a country in which they had no place to live or have employment. Eventually, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) denounced the measures taken by the blockading countries. However, the border post still remains firmly closed, only opening up temporarily for pilgrims. Tension Among Gulf Countries The issuance of the blockade increased tension in relationships between Qatar and other countries, especially the United Arab Emirates. On June 11, 2018, the state of Qatar profiled a case against the UAE in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the International Convention on the International Court of Justice Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), claiming that the UAE violated the human rights of the Qatari citizens through the blockade. On July 23, 2018, the ICJ issued for provisional measures to be taken by the UAE, ensuring Qatari families and Qatari students to live in the UAE without the fear of deportation. On April 8, 2019, Qatar sued banks in Luxembourg, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. These banks were accused for manipulating the Qatari Riyal, the official currency for Qatar. Tension can also be observed by the internet status as different countries in the Gulf region are blocking each other’s websites. Soon after the blockade was established, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Nations blocked Qatar’s biggest and government-funded news platform, the Al Jazeera. Recently, there was record of blocking certain websites, including each of an Emirati and Saudi website for the TIANMUN 2019 Arab League – 4 applying of visas, required for citizens to enter the country. On this issue, the United Arab Emirates filed a case in the ICJ on March 2019, claiming that Qatar was “aggravating the dispute.” Qatar, in response, told the ICJ that the only reason the website was blocked was because the website had “malware” coded within the website, imposing as a threat to state security. In the end, the request made by the UAE was rejected by the ICJ on June 2019. International Actions Warning from the United Nations Not long after the blockade was established against Qatar, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, published a comment regarding the human violations caused by the isolation of Qatar. In his comment, which was published on June 14, 2017, he stated that he was “alarmed about the possible impact on many people’s human rights in the wake of the decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar.” He then gave reasons and examples of the human violations: disrupting the lives of mixed families, bothering the education of students studying abroad, and threatening to arrest and jail those in sympathy with Qatar and in opposition with the government. The comment published by the United Nations then warned and urged the countries to resolve conflicts through “dialogue” in a manner that does not violate international human rights law. Attempted Mediations by Kuwait Among the many nations that blockaded Qatar in 2017, Kuwait was not one of them. The government of Kuwait maintained good relationships with Qatar and made many efforts to mediate between the Qatar and the blockading nations. Heavily supported by the United States as well as other powerful Western countries, Emir of Kuwait Discussing Qatar Crisis Kuwait was a hope for the solution of the crisis. Nonetheless, these mediating efforts did not work in resolving the issues and failed to make incremental changes. However, the United States still expresses that the country will continue in their efforts to support the Gulf-oriented resolution of the topic. The Quartet (ATQ), however, responded back with the declaration that “the resolution of the Qatari crisis will be only through the response of the Qatari government to implement the demands of the four countries,” indicating that the end to this crisis would only happen through Qatar’s carefully planned out actions.