Blockade on Qatar turns one year old

The economic and political blockade on Qatar—a small country on the Persian Gulf—is turning a year old this Tuesday (June 5). During this period, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrein, and Egypt have kept their diplomatic ties with Qatar severed, in addition to isolating the country by sea, land, and air.

Since the blockade was imposed, the Qatari government has adopted measures to mitigate its effects and prove the international community that the decision is illegal and based on false claims regarding Qatar’s support of terrorism.

Qatar’s Ambassador to Brazil Mohammed Al-Hayki told Agência Brasil that the preparations ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are still being conducted as predicted. “We’re on the right track towards hosting the 2022 World Cup. Even though the countries that have joined the blockade are trying to disrupt the event—and are using everything they can to do that—these efforts are doomed to fail,” Al-Hayki said.

Qatar has avoided shortages in the supply of food, medications, and other stocks by revamping its import and export logistics, in addition to diversifying the countries with which it maintains commercial relations. Nonetheless, the citizens in the nations involved are having to deal with the impact personally—children, wives, and husbands have been forced apart. Thousands of families, including Qatari nationals living in the countries that decided to adhere to the blockade had their lives affected by measures that violate the right to health care, education, and freedom of press, opinion, and expression—as international entities have acknowledged, like the UN Human Rights Committee.

The impact can be gauged through the over 11,300 cases of violations gathered by Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee, among them the violation of the right to work, education, family reunion, free circulation and residency, and even property.

Tackling the problem

In September, 2017, three months after the blockade was introduced, the port of Hamad was inaugurated, with a total cargo capacity for 6 million containers a year and 1.7 million tons of general goods, 1 million tons of grain, and 500 thousand vehicles.

Qatar and the US announced they plan to make permanent as well as to expand the US military base in Al-Udeid, where over 10 thousand US military agents are settled—the biggest base in the region.

Also, the Qatari government has taken a number of measures to encourage and draw investment from overseas into key sectors of the economy, including new trade legislation with privileges for international investors.

How it happened

On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates, Bahrein, and Egypt broke their diplomatic ties with Qatar and declared a blockade on the country by land, sea, and air under claims that Qatar supported terrorism, in addition to false statements attributed to Qatar’s emir published by hackers on Qatar News Agency. The cyber attack, carried out by the Emirates, was subsequently confirmed by the CIA.

After the blockade was launched, the four countries brought forth a list with 13 demands that should be met by Qatar in 10 days so that the move could be reversed—among them shutting down Al-Jazeera, the only credit-worthy news broadcaster in the region where freedom of press is considered a threat. Qatar refused to comply, and referred to the requests as an affront to the nation’s sovereignty. Since then, the blockade continues, despite Qatar’s attempts to establish dialog with the nations that subscribed to it, and despite international efforts by countries like Kuwait and the US to solve the impasse.