Global Geo-political Series: US media looks to blame Russia for Middle-East crisis

A diplomatic brawl erupted earlier this week as five countries, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and the fragile government in Yemen severed diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing the latter of supporting extremism, terrorist groups like Muslim Brotherhood, and meddling in other countries affairs. While Qatar denied the claims as falsehood, the above countries have denied Qatar access to airports and seaports and asked Qatari citizens to leave within a period of two weeks.

The brawl got triggered on May 23rd, when Qatar News Agency’s website and social media accounts were apparently hacked, spreading what Doha calls false statements citing Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Those included him allegedly slamming the recent tensions with Iran, calling Hamas and Hezbollah resistance movements, as well as doubting whether US President Donald Trump will stay in power for long. The agency’s compromised Twitter account also cited the Qatari foreign minister as saying the island kingdom was severing relations with some of its neighbors. Qatar has long been blamed by its Gulf partners for its softer stance against Iran and its support for the resistance movements in Yemen.

However, the official statements mention nothing of the hack. According to the official narrative, the reason for the latest Gulf crisis is that Qatar was funding terrorists, and after Trump's recent visit to Saudi Arabia in which he urged a crackdown on the financial support of terrorism. Financial Times earlier this week reported that Qatar has directly provided $1 billion in funding to Iran and al-Qaeda spinoffs. The payments were made to free 26 Qataris, who were earlier kidnapped by Hizbollah.

The US media outlets who are opposed to President Trump and his idea of getting along diplomatically with Russia are pushing a narrative that Russia was responsible for the crisis in the Middle East. According to CNN, which once gain cited unnamed US officials, US investigators believe that it was Russian hackers who breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted fake news that triggered the crisis. We have seen in the past and in the case of the UK terrorist attack, how unconfirmed reports and unauthorized leaks can lead to a diplomatic rift.