Doha supports Iran's projects in the region, finances Hezbollah's arms deals‏

English version

اليمن العربي

Doha supports Iran's projects in the Arab region and it went to finance weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah.

 

According to the report, released by Fox News Channel about Qatar's financing of arms deals belonging to Hezbollah, the date of funding dates back to 2017, which was not an accident, but rather it was linked to another story dating back to 2015.

 

The story started with kidnapping 26 Qataris, including princes from the ruling family, during a hunting trip in southern Iraq by the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigade militia. They were not released until Iranian-Iraqi mediation, and in a deal that went beyond the hostages to a demographic change in Syria, changing Qatar and Turkey's relationship with Hezbollah and Iran, and settling files between Hezbollah and the terrorist Al-Nusra Front.

 

During this crisis, the name of the Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force who was killed in an American air raid earlier this year, appeared.

 

Qatari Money Haven

 

A security contractor, known as "Jason G.", prepared a report on Qatar's financing of arms deals belonging to Hezbollah, and delivered part of it to the American Fox News Channel, which published it.

 

Jason stated that a Qatari emir, whose name has not been revealed, was responsible for financing the party’s weapons. A report published in the German newspaper "Die Zeit" stated: German intelligence saw a copy of Jason's report, and confirmed the authenticity of what was stated in it.

 

This is not the first time that intelligence reports have been issued condemning Qatar for financing terrorism. In 2017, the US President, Trump, spoke about this and said: “Qatar is funding terrorism in a large way.” However, the following year he retreated from that and praised Qatar's cooperation with Washington in counterterrorism.

 

The Fox News report indicated that Trump was subjected to great pressure from the Qatari lobbies in Washington, which prompted him to change his mind.

 

In the context of this, a researcher in political Islam movements and a Syrian journalist, Muhammad Suleiman, said "Qatar uses charitable societies as a cover to finance activities suspected of terrorism, and there are lawsuits filed before the American judiciary accusing Qatar of this".

 

What happend in 2017?

 

It seems that 2017 was a busy year for Qatar, as Trump's statements coincided with Qatar and Iran reaching a grand deal to release the 26 Qataris kidnapped in Iraq, in a deal that cost it one billion dollars.

 

The 26 were Qatari they were a number of members of the royal family, their assistants and some servants, who arrived in southern Iraq in 2015 on a hunting trip and were kidnapped by the Iraqi Hezbollah militia loyal to Qassem Soleimani.

 

One of princes assistants told New York Times that one of the kidnapped princes offered the kidnappers a large sum of money in exchange for their release, but the response came as follows: “Do you think we want your money?”

 

The Qatari prince did not understand the reason for his kidnapping until 2017, when the New York Times revealed the release deal.

 

Journalist Muhammad Suleiman sheds more light on this saying: “Jason did not disclose all his information to Fox News yet, but he pointed to a dangerous piece of information, which is that Qatari funding for Hezbollah began in 2017, the year that witnessed the deal to release the kidnapped Qataris in Iraq".

 

"The Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades were responsible for the kidnapping of the Qataris on direct orders from Qassem Soleimani, and their release came after a financial-political deal with Qatar, according to which millions of dollars were paid to each of: Iraqi Hezbollah, Iranian mediators, Iraqi mediators, Al-Nusra Front in Syria, and Lebanese Hezbollah, " Suleiman added.

 

The report of the "New York Times" unraveled the ambiguity of the deal, the reasons for paying one billion dollars for the hostages, and Syria's relationship with that. The deal included several points, explained by journalist Suleiman: “The deal included that Qatar mediate between the Lebanese Hezbollah and al-Nusra front in Syria, to agree to exchange Syrian Shiite residents besieged by the front in the two Shiite towns of Kafraya and al-Foua in Idlib countryside, in exchange for the residents of the towns of Madaya and Zabadani, In the countryside of Damascus, near the Lebanese border,  they are Sunni besieged by the party . "

 

Syrian journalist Muhammad Suleiman, according to Hafirat, stated that Qatar supports Hezbollah in spite of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and believes that its influence in Lebanon is linked to strengthening its relationship with the most powerful Lebanese parties, Hezbollah.

 

In order to achieve the deal; Qatar paid millions of dollars to the Al-Nusra Front, which is classified as terrorist, and Turkey participated in this deal, which was known as the "Four Countries Deal."

 

Soleimani pledged the release of the Qatari hostages to the completion of the Four Countries Deal, and to achieve that he sent an envoy from the Lebanese Hezbollah to Doha to mediate.

 

The Al-Nusra Front and the Ahrar al-Sham faction obtained 50 million dollars from Qatar in exchange for the deal. The magazine's report did not reveal the amount that Hezbollah received for its role in mediation and the completion of the deal.

 

The incident appears to have constituted a milestone in Qatar's policy towards Hezbollah. Its hostile policy since 2011has changed to coordination with it and investing in it support. That change has been linked to what is happening in Syria as Turkey and Qatar abandoned the goal of toppling Assad and focused on preserving the realistic gains in northern Syria.

 

The Syrian journalist, Muhammad Suleiman, said in this context “Qatar supports the party in spite of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in addition to strengthening its relationship with Iran through this support. Above all else , it sees that its influence in Lebanon is linked to strengthening its relationship with the most powerful Lebanese parties, which is Hezbollah.”

 

The strange thing, from Suleiman's view, is that Qatar has acquiesced to blackmail, and accepted to revolve around the abduction of its children and threatening their lives."

 

Slumping into the arms of Iran

 

Two months after the Qatari-Iranian deal, the countries of the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt) announced the severance of their diplomatic relations with Qatar, and this was accompanied by economic measures, including closing the land and sea borders with Qatar, stopping flights, and imposing restrictions on Qataris movement in these countries.

 

List of demands included: Qatar's announcement of reducing diplomatic representation with Iran, closing its attachments, the elements affiliated with and associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to leave the Qatari territories, and limiting trade cooperation in a manner that does not violate the international sanctions imposed on Iran, and without prejudice to the security of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States, and to cut off any military or intelligence cooperation with Tehran.

 

The previous demand revealed an Arab awareness of Doha's consolidation of its relations with Iran and the militias loyal to it, headed by Hezbollah, and the threat this poses to Arab national security.

 

Doha responded with more rapprochement with Iran and support for Iranian projects in Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq, which explains Qatar's tendency to fund arms deals for Hezbollah.