If you cannot win them, join them” seems to be the old British political principle that Washington has been applying to its plans to re-design the Arab region, always under the recurrent public pretext of the “war on terrorism.”
By Baher Kamal*
Specifically, since the U.S has failed to defeat “terrorism” through massive military and intelligence operations carried out after the September 11 attacks (see Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, among others), the American strategy has shifted towards engaging with what it considers as “moderate” Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
For this purpose, Washington has been relying on two key “agents” in the region: Qatar and Turkey.
Not a Mere Speculation
This is not about a personal, biassed guess, but rather the substance of fact-based, widespread conclusions reached by numerous national and international political leaders, security experts and prestigious specialised analysis.
Human Wrongs Watch reports on just some of these conclusions:
The Deputy Head of Police and Security in Dubai: ‘They Met in Turkey to Overthrow the Governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates…”
Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Head of Police and Security in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), reported that members of the Muslim Brotherhood have met in Turkey and decided to “overthrow the Gulf Governments” by the year 2016.
On his Twitter account, Khalfan last week said: “they, the Gulf Muslim Brotherhood, met in Turkey and decided to overthrow the Governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, to follow with Oman. They agreed that 2016 will be the year of the big start”.
Considered as one of the best informed intelligence sources in the Gulf, Khalfan added that “what they [the Muslim Brotherhood] discussed in Turkey has been filtered by a Muslim Brother in a place in Lebanon.”
“However, those miserables [the Muslim Brotherhood] have not realised that such a planning will be frustrated in spite of their Muslim Brotherhood lords in Istanbul”, he stated, calling them the “serpent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey (…)
“As [Turkish Primer Minister Recip] Erdogan banned Twitter, the Muslim Brotherhood had to keep its mouth shut, and did not issue a declaration, … and it was proved that they are just sheep.”
According to the Dubai Police and Security Deputy Chair, “the international masonry has set up the Muslim Brotherhood to produce disorders in the Arab nation.”
The Former Prime Minister of Libya and Chairman of the Executive Office of the Libyan National Transitional Council: “The implementation of the [U.S.] programme has been carried out by two regional agents: Qatar and Turkey”
For his part, Mohamed Jebril, former Prime Minister of Libya and Chairman of the Executive Office of the Libyan National Transitional Council, said on 8 February 2014 that the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was a “slap” to the U.S. plans.
Jebril, who is also the leader of National Forces Coalition, stressed that the success of the Egyptians in ousting President Morsi, meant a “thump” for the American programme for the region.”
In a recent interview with the London-based Arab daily “Al Hayat”, the Libyan political leader said that his country “is a danger to itself and its neighbours.”
He added that the U.S. policy has been characterised by a double-standard towards the [Arab] revolutions,” stressing that the U.S. real programme has been based on “supporting the arrival [to power] of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, hoping that this will contribute to containing “terrorism and terrorists.”
“The implementation of this [U.S.] programme has been carried out by two regional agents: Qatar and Turkey”, Jebril warned.
Then he informed about reported on operations of “smuggling of men, money and weapons,” in the framework of a plan to “bring Egypt back [to the U.S. programme] via Libya.” He also reported that there are in Libya up to 21 million weapons.
Jebril acknowledged that Qatar “helped the Libyan revolution”, but that he perceived from the very beginning that Qatar was acting in two parallel directions, and that the political Islamist movement was its key ally.
Then he informed that Qatar tried from the very beginning to install Abdul Hakim Belhaj [former Prince of the combatant Islamic movement] as the leader of the Libyan revolution, and that former Qatar Prince Hamad Ben Khalifa Al Thani (father of the current Prince) opposed a plan to collect the weapons that were in the hands of the revolutionary forces.
French Academician Gilles Kepel: ’The Muslim Brotherhood relied on “Qatar treasure and Turkish soldiers.’
Meanwhile, prestigious French orientalist and academician Gilles Kepel declared on 23 March 2014 that the plan of empowering the Muslim Brotherhood relied on “Qatar treasure and Turkish soldiers.’
Kepel, who is University Professor at l’ Institut d”Etudes Politiques de Paris and Senior Fellow at the London School of Economy, among other academic roles, on 23 March 2014 in an interview with the Egyptian daily Al MasryMasry Al Youm, said that the revolutions of the Arab Spring have gone through several stages.tages.
“The political Islamic movements –in particular the Muslim Brotherhood — have emerged in the second stage of these revolutions.”
He specified that “during the first stage, there were numerous movements aiming at overthrowing the regimes, as it happened in those countries where the revolutions succeeded: Egypt, Tunisia and Libya; in other countries, like Bahrain, Yemen and Syria, this turned into civil wars and inter-community conflicts.”
The well-known French Middle East expert added that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood was the result of their organizational, political and financial capacity, which exceeds the rest of the political parties and other groups also because they are more integrated into the community than the others.
“The appearance of Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi [Egyptian Islamic preacher based in Qatar] in Tahrir Square [in Cairo] in a Friday sermon that followed the fall of [President Hosni] Mubarak, “marked the biggest sign of the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempt to control the revolution and ride its tide.”
“Though they did not have any role at the beginning of the revolution –even when no one denies their role during the 18 days [that culminated with ousting Mubarak], the Muslim Brotherhood gradually began building their alliance with the Salafists [radical Islamist movement], and this was the reason why Islamism swept in the parliamentarian elections in 2011.
“The presence of the Salafists was the will of Saudi Arabia so as not to fully leave the scene to the Muslim Brotherhood, hence the Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood has been due to political competition with Saudi Arabia.”
Asked why the Muslim Brotherhood fell after just one year in Egypt, Kepler said most of those who voted for former President Mohamed Morsi, did so because they did not want the other candidate, general Ahmed Shafiq.
“Nevertheless, they got away from him in the first months of his rule after he began to impose his control over the State, preventing the democratic process, marginalising and excluding all spectrums of society with the exception of the members of his group (the Muslim Brotherhood), to the point that it was difficult for anyone who was not close to the Muslim Brotherhood before that moment, to connect to the new Brotherhood State, because they did not trust anyone outside the group, due to their work in the shade throughout 80 years.”
“There has been an alliance between the U.S. administration and the Muslim Brotherhood on the wake of the 25 January 2011 revolution”
When they went out to the light –Kepler added– they continued to behave in the same way, and this is a big mistake, as opposed to Mubarak’s State, which was ready to deal with any one according to its interests, even if he is corrupted or bribed.
Asked about the varied Western reactions to what happened on 30 June 2013, i.e., the massive popular protests to overthrow Morsi, Kepler said: “I believe that there has been an alliance between the U.S. administration and the Muslim Brotherhood on the wake of the 25 January 2011 revolution, as Washington thought that the Muslim Brotherhood is a faction who can restore order and calm in Egypt after the chaotic events that followed the revolution.”
“I also believe that this alliance began before the January 2011 revolution [which ousted Mubarak], as most leaders-dictators such as Mubarak and [Tunisian] Ben Ali had benefited from the West’s war on terrorism, because the Western countries were of the view that these leaders were better than al-Qaida leaders like bin Laden.”
“But after the decline of al-Qaeda and the escalation of protests in the countries of the Arab Spring, Western countries saw that these leaders had become part of the problem rather than part of the solution, and that the only alternative located on the ground is the Muslim Brotherhood, which presented itself as a democratic alternative, as happened in Egypt and Tunisia,” he added.
“Turkey and Qatar have been seeking to “Muslim-brotherise” the Middle East”
Regarding Qatar and Turkey positions after the 30 June 2013 events that concluded with the ousting of Morsi, Kepler stressed that Turkey and Qatar have been seeking to “Muslim-brotherise” the Middle East and to empower the Muslim Brotherhood to rule Egypt.
“Qatar is the treasure, and Turkey the soldier, and each of them has important reasons to be supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood–Qatar supports the Muslim Brotherhood for political hegemony in the Gulf and to compete with Saudi Arabia, while Turkey takes the Brotherhood as a means to influence the political and economic dominion in the entire region.”
“Nevertheless, some things have changed the course of events, such as changing the Qatari Prince, and the exit of mass demonstrations against Erdogan’s regime in Turkey. These events have weakened the Turkish and Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Withdraw their Ambassadors in Qatar
Earlier this month, in an unprecedent move, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced their decision to withdraw their respective Ambassadors in Qatar. Egypt had already done so. Other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council such as Kuwait, is reported to be about to take similar measure.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia ordered the closure of the Qatari TV network Al Jazeera in its territory and, later on, demanded that the Qatari Government shuts down this network for good.
Ambassador Said Mohamed Orabi, President of the Congress Party, Egypt: “Washington resorted to dealing with terrorist groups, those it found that it could not defeat”
For his part, Ambassador Said Mohamed Orabi, President of the Congress Party, Egypt, said that since the events of September 11 in the United States, Washington began to wonder about how to prevent a repetition of those events, proceeded to a careful planning, very patiently, and resorted to dealing with terrorist groups, those it found that it could not defeat.
The Egyptian diplomat on 23 March 2014 added in an interview on Egyptian TV network ONTV that the concept of “nation-building”, which is based on the destruction of nations and the re-building of them on the bases of new educational and economic concepts that are far away from the old concepts prevailing… this concept, which was implemented with Japan and Germany after the II World War, has been applied through the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan with the announced scope of eradicating terrorism. The known Egyptian diplomat also explained that the United States have destroyed Iraq but have not been able to re-build it because of the different nature of Arab States as compared with Japan and Germany in terms of religious and cultural thoughts… This lead the U.S. to cooperate with terrorist groups and sponsor them so as that to have control over the countries through joining them.
Sinai, Centre of Islamists Terrorism
Last but not least, it should be mentioned that, under Morsi’s rule, a growing series of armed attacks, blasts and killings against Egyptian military and security forces first in the Sinai Peninsula and later on in the rest of the country.
Hundreds of reports circulated that these attacks were perpetrated by mercenary armed forces that were introduced to Egypt though Gaza, operated by Islamist movement HAMAS.
Egyptian security forces have been seizing hundreds of weapons which were reported to proceed both from Gaza and Libya, presumably funded by Qatar.
What are the next plans for the Arab countries and the Middle East region? (to be continued).
* Baher Kamal is an Egyptian-born, Spanish national, secular, pro-peace and human rights journalist. Kamal is Human Wrongs Watch publisher and editor.
