How do you solve a problem like Qatar?
Qatar has been happy to use its vast wealth to infiltrate many aspects of American and Western society, and its biggest export isn't gas, it's terrorism.
By John Mirisch
JNS
Jul 4, 2025
For many years, the tiny Gulf country of Qatar flew under the radar. After all, why should a country that has fewer citizens than Lexington, Ky., make waves, garner publicity or be on the tip of everyone’s tongue?
Now, it seems, that more and more people are beginning to speak up about Qatar’s regime, and its public condemnation of Israel and praise of Hamas after the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Yes, there are a few lone voices out there, such as Yigal Carmon of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and journalist Benjamin Weinthal at the Middle East Forum, who have been pointing out the depths of Qatar’s nefariousness for years. Yet for the most part, the chorus of critics is a more recent phenomenon.
Sometimes, an avalanche does start with a few snowballs. Sometimes, persistence does overcome resistance (or bribery). Last month, the Free Press published a comprehensive exposé of Qatar’s malign influence peddling with the straightforward title: “How Qatar Bought America.”
The bad press and critical voices are nothing that the Qatari regime would be particularly pleased about. Qatar has been happy to use its vast wealth to infiltrate many aspects of American and Western society by flying under the radar. Qatar’s unearned wealth may be built upon its liquified natural gas reserves, but its biggest export is not natural gas. Qatar’s biggest export is terrorism, antisemitic propaganda and jihadi Islamism, Wahhabi-style.
The case against Qatar has become more vocal recently, as expressed in a number of articles and posts on X (though posts critical of Qatar seem to be suppressed by the site’s algorithm). Jonathan Schanzer at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, a longtime critic of Qatar, recently wrote an excellent piece in Commentary titled, “Catering to Qatar. Why does everybody bow before this terror-supporting country?”
MEMRI also recently published a piece I wrote laying out many of Qatar’s evil dealings: “Qatar for Beginners: The Evil Regime Behind Al-Jazeera.”
With its recent offer of donating a “flying palace” for U.S. President Donald Trump to use as Air Force One, Doha may have finally jumped the shark in weaponizing its wealth. Ironically, Qatar, which has taken such great pains to fly under the radar, will be on the radar with each flight of the highest-profile jet in the world. Perhaps it should have considered gifting the president a stealth bomber instead.
While the Gulf state may be one of the leading funders and promoters of jihadi Islamism on the planet, it is not an asset to the world. So, how do you solve a problem like Qatar, especially if overt, unilateral action from the United States is but a remote possibility?
Here are a few possibilities, scenarios and suggestions.
The Pollyanna scenario
Under this scenario, Qatar would repent, see the light and make a switch. This would mean major changes in Qatari policies, including joining the Abraham Accords, ending its funding of Islamist terrorist groups, ending its funding of Islamist propaganda abroad, including the attempt to co-opt American colleges, banning the Muslim Brotherhood and shutting down Al Jazeera or overhauling it completely. How likely is it that Qatar will, of its own accord, have a change of heart and join the family of civilized nations? Not bloody likely.
Pressuring Qatar
Here’s another unlikely scenario: the nations of the world, led by the United States and the other Gulf countries, get fed up with Qatar’s export of terrorism and Islamism, and a full-court press of unified, international pressure causes internal policy changes or regime change. Of course, it should be within the remit of the United Nations to put pressure on rogue nations, but the international body has become such a colossal failure that it seems to have become the exact opposite of what it is supposed to be.
Perhaps the biggest leverage the United States holds is the Al Udeid Air Base. The United States needs to develop a Plan B, including shuttering and/or moving the base or even extra-territorializing it, and it needs to let Qatar understand that this is a real possibility if it doesn’t play ball. While the Pentagon brass undoubtedly love Qatari cash and not having to pay for the base out of its budget, it has been reported that Qatar placed limitations on the American use of the base, for example, categorically forbidding it from being used for any possible actions directed toward the Iranian regime.
Having a foreign country handcuff what the U.S. military can do on its bases represents a serious impediment to implementing strategy in the region.
Is it likely that the current U.S. government would use the Al Udeid base as leverage? No, and if the United States won’t pressure Qatar, neither will smaller countries.
Impoverish Qatar
Since the power of Qatar comes from its vast wealth, eliminating that wealth would be a scenario to stop its malign activities. Stop its liquified natural gas exports and you stop its export of terrorism and jihadi Islamism. Eliminate Qatari wealth, and take away its most powerful weapon; its only weapon. Replacing fossil fuels with alternative sources of energy could help make the need for gas obsolete. This could also ultimately be good for the environment, assuming we can figure out a way to avoid Jevons’ Paradox.
Additionally, if the United States designated Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism, sanctioned the country and froze its assets, this would quickly limit Qatar’s wealth-related mischief. Though under such a scenario, Qatar would likely try to increase its exports to rogue nations like China.
Lawsuits in the United States and elsewhere could have an impact. If American citizens who have been victimized by Qatar-funded terrorism were allowed to sue the government of Qatar, this could help stem the flow of Qatari cash and, in theory at least, serve as a deterrent for Qatar to continue financing terrorism.
A more novel solution would be for surrounding countries, tired of Qatar’s double-dealing, to tap into the Qatari/Iranian natural gas field using remote tunneling technology. It could be done from neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain, or even from further afield.
Another way to eliminate Qatar’s “superpower” would be to coordinate a series of cyberattacks that would expropriate Qatar’s unearned wealth, drain its banks and create asset forfeiture on a massive scale. If Qatar doesn’t have the wealth to weaponize, it won’t be able to cause as much mischief in the region and the Western world, and its malign influence will die out.
Regime change
The corrupt Al-Thani family runs Qatar like a mafia family. Regional actors who have had enough of the Al-Thanis’ malevolence could come together and take down the current regime. No need to do it directly or overtly, proxies are the name of the game in the region and shadowy proxies, funded by dark money, could be used to effect regime change either from within or without.
Almost 90% of Qatar’s population are foreign workers, some of whom are kept in slave-like conditions. Through proxy funding, including the use of expropriated Qatari funds, and targeted cyberattacks, a slave revolt could cooperate with friendly regional powers to remove the cancer of the Al-Thani regime and to replace it with a government that has zero tolerance for jihadi Islamism and whose goal is regional peace and cooperation, not killing Jews and annihilating Israel.
Disappearing Qatar
Perhaps the most elegant solution to the problem of Qatar is for Qatar to disappear. For all the talk of Israel’s not being a “legitimate country” and of “wiping Israel off the map,” the slave-state of Qatar has no real justification to exist. Surrounding countries, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain, could simply annex it.
Historically, Qatar was a part of Bahrain. A clan rivalry is the only reason it eventually devolved from Bahrain, but ancient clan rivalries are no reason to let a rogue regime stand in the way of regional prosperity in the 21st century.
Qatar is a state-sponsor of terrorism that ordered Hamas to keep the hostages and is directly responsible for the Israeli captives being tortured and languishing in Gaza’s dungeons; it is the arsonist who wants to take credit for putting out the fire it lit and stoked.
In the past, the Qatari defense minister Sa’oud Aal Thani has said: “We are all Hamas.”
No, we’re not, and one way or another, it’s time to #StopQatar.
No comments:
Post a Comment