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Essay / Impact of the Qatar crisis on the European Union, Russia and the United States of America
The Qatar crisis undoubtedly had critical consequences at the local level, but it also reverberated throughout the planet. There are mainly three parties to consider globally, namely the European Union and its members, Russia, its challenger, and of course the United States of America. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay European countries import a huge amount of natural resources from this region of the world, both oil and natural gas, and are therefore very interested in the political stability of Middle Eastern countries. They have built strong bilateral relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries – of which Qatar and Saudi Arabia are full members – through cooperation agreements. As Europe became concerned about its interests in the region, it attempted to mediate this crisis in order to resolve it diplomatically. In fact, he encouraged de-escalation but decided to fully support Kuwait in its attempt to facilitate negotiations towards a peaceful solution and containment of the crisis. Indeed, the EU firmly believes that the participation of global powers like the United States and Russia, or even itself, would be harmful. Europe has chosen this positioning because it does not trust the American administration to understand and effectively manage this crisis. Furthermore, the EU is traumatized by the recent consequences of Western interventions in this region; she deduced that only a local state, ideally part of the GCC, could truly perceive the interests and concerns of both parties. According to Europe, Kuwait therefore constitutes a key success factor for a rapid but lasting resolution of the crisis. The EU is “ready to help, assist and accompany these mediation efforts in any way that may be requested,” said Frederica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy representative. Europe is nevertheless limited in its diplomatic capacity and stronger actions could be taken by individual states of the Union such as France, Germany or the United Kingdom. The latter usually aligns with American foreign policy and, this time again, stuck to it and proposed a common road map with the United States. In fact, the UK is so focused on Brexit that the British can barely devote active resources to dealing with this crisis, even though their government fears that the Qataris will sell their assets to the UK. In addition to this fear, in this context of Brexit, the United Kingdom was looking for new partners with which to sign a trade agreement and planned to organize a round table with the GCC countries to reach an agreement. These efforts were stopped because of the crisis, which does not reassure the British. Germany, whose first foreign policy priority is the fight against terrorism, took advantage of the opportunity to give the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) access to Qatar's books. Except that even though Germany advocates peaceful dialogue, it is totally reluctant to get deeply involved in the crisis. She nevertheless expressed her deep disagreement with the American position from the start of the conflict. In this situation, France faces a complex situation because it is strongly linked to both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which are alongside Saudi Arabia. This is the reason why France has not taken and will not take a clear position, other than supporting Kuwait for a peaceful resolution, in order not toupset no CCG. We see that Europe considers this issue as a significant risk for its interests in the region but wishes to avoid repeating the mistakes of deep intervention and instead support local actors to resolve the disagreement diplomatically. Unlike Europe, Russia saw the crisis as an opportunity to increase its efforts. its influence in the region. The Russian Federation and Qatar have achieved good trade results in recent years, mainly thanks to the work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Science and Cooperation. The two countries even signed a military cooperation agreement. The recent revival of relations between Russia and Qatar began against a difficult backdrop, when Russia accused Qatar in the early 2000s of harboring men financing Chechen terrorists and rebels, then ordered their assassination on the Qatari soil. The situation even worsened with the Syrian crisis, with Russia trying to strengthen its influence in the region by supporting Bashar's regime while Qatar supported the Muslim Brotherhood which financed the Syrian rebels. Since then, Doha has understood Russia's hold on the region and decided to narrow the diplomatic gap. Russia therefore seized the opportunity of the conflict in the Gulf to further extend its influence by moving closer to a former ally of the United States. It met the expectations of Qatar, which had been desperately looking for allies since the start of the crisis and had already moved closer to Iran, an ally of Russia. In addition to this search for new support, Qatar understood that it could not deliver any gas to Europe without the agreement of Moscow, with Russia strengthening its position with Turkey on this subject. The Kremlin nevertheless continued to maintain good relations with other GCC countries. Overall, Russia appears in the eyes of Qatar as the key player in its national security vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, even if it is not clearly taking sides for the moment so as not to lose the rest of the Arab world. Moscow wants to improve its image in the Arab world to be a credible alternative to the Americans and also wants to be present in this key area for national security in the new global landscape. Once again, the rivalry for influence between the United States and Russia has found a new playing field offering better prospects for the Tsar's country than for Uncle Sam. Indeed, the crisis has led the States -United to find themselves stuck between two allies. This is why the United States has remained neutral so far in the crisis, so as not to upset either Saudi Arabia or Qatar. There is therefore a risk that the dispute will last a long time as long as the status quo is maintained, that is to say thanks to American neutrality. On the one hand, the United States has numerous military contracts and oil interests in Saudi Arabia, its historic ally in the region. On the other hand, Qatar has always been the ideal intermediary for discussions with Iran due to its diplomatic network and positioning in the region. Additionally, Qatar has continued its diversification strategy and recently began investing heavily in assets in the United States. In the meantime, Washington does not want to leave room for Russia or China, which are lurking nearby, to intervene by supporting Qatar. He is therefore vigilant about Qatar's relational efforts towards these two superpowers and may have to abandon this neutrality in the near future. As for Russia, American investigators believe that Russian hackers are responsible for the dissemination of the false comments by the Emir of Qatar that triggered the rift. The underlying goal would be to divide U.S. allies in the region..