Submitted by Brodsky on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 17:01
For years Qatar has energetically sought to pursue autonomous regional policies, balancing their friendly relations with Iran while hosting America’s regional headquarters and cooperating with other Gulf states. In 1995, they opened low-level diplomatic relations with Israel during the Oslo peace process, becoming one of the first Arab states to do so without a peace agreement with Israel.
Qatar’s renewed quest for a stronger regional role began to take shape in 2006 during the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. The war served to highlight the differences between the moderate and radical camps led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and Iran and Syria respectively. Following the crisis, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jasim made camp with the moderates and even called on Lebanon to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel. This move, needless to say, did not sit well with Iran and Syria.
For years Qatar has energetically sought to pursue autonomous regional policies, balancing their friendly relations with Iran while hosting America’s regional headquarters and cooperating with other Gulf states. In 1995, they opened low-level diplomatic relations with Israel during the Oslo peace process, becoming one of the first Arab states to do so without a peace agreement with Israel.Qatar’s renewed quest for a stronger regional role began to take shape in 2006 during the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. The war served to highlight the differences between the moderate and radical camps led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and Iran and Syria respectively. Following the crisis, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jasim made camp with the moderates and even called on Lebanon to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel. This move, needless to say, did not sit well with Iran and Syria.
Iran and the United States: Foreign Policy during the Khomeini Years
The Iranian revolutionary cry to ‘liberate’ all lands for Islam and export the revolution was taken very seriously in the wider Middle East, and given Iraq’s majority Shi’a population (under the rule of the Sunni minority), the rhetoric from Tehran was perceived as a direct threat by Saddam Hussein. For his part, Hussein believed that Iran was militarily weak following the revolution and hoped to exploit the situation by attacking the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan. The war, launched by Iraq on 22 September 1980, further radicalized Iranian politics as the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) – the most radical of Iranian political factions – was left at the uncontested helm of Iranian policy-making.