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Iran Send 5 Planes of Food, Qatar Sheikh Seeks Good Relations [PIC]

Arab state deadline to Qatar has passed.

Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain will hold meeting to discuss next steps against Qatar.
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Funny article:

For Iran, Qatar Crisis Is a Welcome Distraction


By THOMAS ERDBRINKJULY 4, 2017

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  • Iran’s leaders have been noticeably restrained in their response to the Qatar crisis, and for good reason, analysts say. Not only have they welcomed it, they would be happy to see it quietly drag on.

    Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar last month for what they said was its financing of terrorism and working too closely with Iran.

    They then delivered a list of 13 demands that Qatar has dismissed as a grave infringement on its sovereignty and threatened further sanctions if those were not met. On Sunday, they extended the deadline to meet the demands by 48 hours to late Tuesday.

    For Tehran’s clerical leaders, the confrontation between putative Persian Gulf allies came at a particularly auspicious time — when the entire Sunni Arab world seemed lined up against them after President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May.
“They wanted to weaken us,” Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, an Iranian journalist, said with a chuckle, “but now they are losing themselves.”

While Iran and Qatar share one of the largest gas fields in the world and have diplomatic relations, Qatar is of little or no strategic value to Iran.

About the most that Tehran has had to say about the situation was a mild remark from President Hassan Rouhani, who told the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that “Iran’s airspace, sea and ground transport links will always be open to Qatar, our brotherly and neighbor country.”

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President Trump arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May. After the visit, Iran was preparing to face off against a united bloc of wealthy gulf nations. CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times
After Mr. Trump’s visit, however, Tehran was preparing to face a united bloc of wealthy, militarily well-equipped Persian Gulf nations ready to isolate Iran with the enthusiastic backing of the United States. Saudi Arabia had bought $100 billion worth of American weapons and had formed a close partnership against Tehran with Mr. Trump.

The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel were painting Iran as the primary source of instability in the region, a nation supporting terrorist groups in Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza and fighting on behalf of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The road to ratcheting up the pressure on Iran — a sectarian rival hated by the Saudi kingdom for its version of political Islam — seemed open.

Then they started fighting among themselves.

A Qatari news report, subsequently dismissed by the Qatari government as fake, was said to have quoted the emir as saying he wanted to ease tensions with Iran. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reacted furiously, starting a diplomatic and trade blockade against the gas-rich nation, handing over the list of 13 demands — “demand 13: agree to all our demands”— and even forbidding their citizens to wear Barcelona soccer jerseys because they bear the name of their sponsor, Qatar Airways.

One of those demands is that Qatar close a Turkish military base, which would alienate Turkey, a NATO member and an ally of Saudi Arabia in Syria. “Instead of making an Arab NATO, they are only making more enemies,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst in Iran. “In the end, only America is benefiting, selling all those weapons to those countries.”

But even there, the Persian Gulf confrontation is creating some nervous moments for the Pentagon, which is running the Syria air campaign out of a major base in Qatar.

It was a familiar turn of events for the clerics in Tehran, whose regional competition with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries sometimes means just waiting for the Saudis to shoot themselves in the foot, analysts here say.

That strategy seems even more appropriate with the rise of Mohammed bin Salman, 31, the recently named Saudi crown prince, who is developing a reputation for impulsive foreign policy moves that do not work out as planned. He is the architect of the Saudi war in neighboring Yemen, which was supposed to be a blitzkrieg that would end in two days but is dragging into its third year and has caused a horrific humanitarian crisis.

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President Hassan Rouhani told Qatar’s emir that “Iran’s airspace, sea and ground transport links will always be open to Qatar, our brotherly and neighbor country.” CreditTima Agency, via Reuters
Now, the crown prince is seen as the driving force behind the effort to isolate Qatar.

Meanwhile, Iranian news outlets have gleefully reported how the country is reaping fees for the increased use of its airspace by Qatar Airways.

Over the years, Iran has usually preferred to play the long game, lying low and working with local proxies rather than going for quick victories.


When, for instance, Mr. Assad was threatened by forces backed by Saudi Arabia, Tehran quietly drip fed first hundreds and now thousands of troops into the conflict. It drew on numerous sources, especially the battle-hardened soldiers of the Lebanese Shiite militia, Hezbollah; Shiite militias from Iraq; and Afghans conscripted into the Iranian armed forces.

Qatar cannot expect support beyond the planeloads of food it has already been sent, analysts say. It is cherry season in Iran, so most probably the Qataris are now chewing on those, some people suggest here.

“Our interests are best served if there is no war, conflict or any further tensions in our region,” said Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We try to act rationally, because the opponents in the region are young and unripe and irrational in their approach with Qatar.”

Watching from the sidelines, while enemies fight, can have benefits. “It’s like Kuwait, when Saddam Hussein invaded it in 1990 — our enemy makes a move and weakens himself,” Mr. Taraghi, the hard-line analyst, said.

The only thing Iran did in that case was to open its airspace when Mr. Hussein needed a safe haven for his fighter jets when the United States invaded. He sent over 100 warplanes. The Iranians said, ‘Thank you’ — and never returned them.

“We just remained neutral and won,” Mr. Taraghi said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/...an-qatar-crisis-is-a-welcome-distraction.html
 
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What do you think they are going to do? A War would cause Iran to get involved one way or the other and as a result Iran would come out stronger. Not Saudi Arabia or Egypt or anybody. a war is too convenient for our enemies unless they are THAT stupid?
 
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What do you think they are going to do? A War would cause Iran to get involved one way or the other and as a result Iran would come out stronger. Not Saudi Arabia or Egypt or anybody. a war is too convenient for our enemies unless they are THAT stupid?

Your enemies are THAT stupid.
 
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I hope they kick out Qatar from PGCC.
It's fun tiny and small Qatar standing against Saudi and Egypt.
Tiny Qatar is showing more dare and courage than big and populated country like Egypt which sold its sovereignty to Saudi.
 
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امیر قطر میم بن حمد بن خلیفه آل ثانی : در زمان محاصره فقط از طریق ایران توانستیم غذا و دارو فراهم کنیم
http://www.farsnews.com/13960808000092

Qatar emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani: when all other countries blocked verything, blocked Medicine, blocked foods, the only way for us to provide food and Medicines or our people was Iran

به ذکاوت ایرانی‌ها احترام می‌گذارم؛ باید با ایران صادقانه و رودررو گفت‌وگو کرد
نخست‌وزیر پیشین قطر در خصوص اختلافات کشورهای عربی با ایران نیز گفت که بهتر است این اختلافات رو در رو با ایرانی‌ها حل شود و کشورهای عربی به دنبال تنش غرب با ایران نباشند که هر گاه تنش زیاد شد آنان نیز تنش را زیاد کنند و هرگاه توافقی با ایران شد، آنها پشیمان شوند.
او تأکید کرد که بهتر است با ایران با صداقت برخورد شود چرا که ایران کشوری بزرگ در منطقه است و بهتر است اختلافات موجود از طریق گفت‌وگو حل شود.
حمد رفتار ایران با کشورهای عربی را مقایسه کرد و با ذکر مثالی گفت: روزی نیروی دریایی قطر یک شناور ایرانی را به اتهام ورود 200 متری به حریم قطر توقیف و حدود 31 سرنشینش را بازداشت کرد. با برادران در ایران تماس گرفتیم وگفتم ما روابط خوبی داریم ولی این خط قرمز است و شما به حریم ما تجاوز کردید.. گفتند خیر.. ما درحریم خود بودیم.
نخست‌وزیر پیشین قطر افزود: گفتیم طرف ثالثی داوری کند، ما هم افراد و کارشناسان خود را بردیم و بررسی کردند و متوجه شدیم ما اشتباه کرده‌ایم وحق با ایرانی‌ها بود؛ عذرخواهی کردیم و محترمانه آنان را بازگرداندیم.. ما [اصلا] نمیخواستیم مقابل ایران بایستیم چون ایران کشوری بزرگ است. ما نمیتوانیم رو در روی ایران بایستیم. اما به هر حال اتفاقی بود.. .
حمد گفت: این را گفتم که بگویم، ببینید رفتار ایرانی‌ها را؛ با آرامش کامل؛ با متانت کامل. چون جایگاه خود و قدرت خودشان را به خوبی می‌دانند... اصلا نیازی نیست که ایران مقابل قطر عرض اندام کند [چون قطر قدرت ایران را می‌داند]. صحبت کردیم، طرف ثالثی آمد داوری کرد اختلاف حل شد و فهمیدیم که ما اشتباه کرده بودیم. اما تصور کنید که این مشکلی که [با ایران] پیش آمد با یک کشوری عربی پیش آمده بود؛ چه میشد...!!
حمد توضیح داد: ایرانی‌ها در تعامل باهوشند. نگاه کنید به مسئله هسته‌ای‌شان. چگونه 30 سال رفتار کردند؟ با هوشمندی. من به ذکاوتشان احترام میگذارم.. همه شکست‌های ما پیروزی ایرانیهاست. در عراق، سوریه و لبنان و هر کجا حتی یمن؛ نیاز نیست مقابلشان بایستیم بلکه باید با صداقت با ایران گفت‌وگو کنیم.
حمد یادآور شد: نباید منتظر باشیم که غرب چطور با ایران رفتار می‌کند. اگر تنش داشت ما هم تنش داشته باشیم و اگر توافق کرد ما دچار ناامیدی شویم.
http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13960806000071
 
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دیدار عباس آخوندی وزیر راه و شهرسازی با جاسم بن سیف بن احمد السلیطی وزیر حمل و نقل و ارتباطات قطر
تاکید بر هدف‌گذاری در کریدور ایران- قطر برای توسعه روابط حمل و نقلی
عباس آخوندی وزیر راه و شهرسازی در حاشیه دیدار با جاسم بن سیف بن احمد السلیطی وزیر حمل و نقل و ارتباطات قطر
زیر راه و شهرسازی با تأکید براینکه امکان تجارت بسیار گسترده‌ای بین ایران و قطر چه در مقاصد 2 کشور و چه به عنوان ترانزیت به سمت شمال ایران و جنوب قطر وجود دارد گفت: به تصور ما امکان هدف‌گذاری در این زمینه برای استفاده از کریدور ایران- قطر در جهت توسعه حمل و نقل بین 2 کشور وجود دارد.
http://www.tinn.ir/بخش-ترانزیت-18/1...در-کریدور-ایران-قطر-برای-توسعه-روابط-حمل-نقلی

Iran Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi, meeting with Jassim bin Sayyaf bin Ahmad al-Sayyati Minister of Transport and Communications of Qatar
 
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