Qatar, the small Gulf state that tomorrow hosts an Arab summit, has become a key regional player thanks to its support for Arab uprisings and the marginalization of traditional heavyweights.
However, the “checkbook diplomacy” of the energy-rich state and its backing for Islamists who have seized power in some countries rocked by the Arab Spring have triggered criticism.
The emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is “obsessed by an ambition to leave his heirs a country that counts on the world map after it was practically unknown only 20 years ago,” said Olivier Da Lage, author of the new French book Qatar: the new masters of the game.
“Qatar’s place, disproportionate to its size and population, is explained notably by its considerable financial capabilities ... and the extended absence of the historical actors in the Arab world,” he said in reference to Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia.
Qatar has a population of less than 2 million in a state that sits on the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves and 13th proven oil reserves.
Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, argued that Qatar is not a unique case in history of a small state becoming a regional power, citing Venice among others, in a study published in December last year.
“But this influence poses a question on the impact of the media and the power of money,” he said of Qatar’s al-Jazeera news channel.
In Tunisia, the ruling Islamist Ennahda party is accused of being funded by Doha with the aim of establishing an Islamic state.
“Doha sees in forming an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood by using checkbook diplomacy a way to create a regional base with economic and political influence in the Middle East and beyond,” wrote Egyptian French-language weekly al-Ahram Hebdo in an editorial on Wednesday.
Through al-Jazeera, Qatar has realized that “it could be a key player in the new region in transition, instead of being the protector of an old order in agony,” Salem said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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