“The U.S. is probably playing its diplomatic angle to put pressure on Qatar to wield its power in the Arab League in a way it is beneficial to the Anglo-American interests.”-James Corbett, independent journalist
Russian Ambassador to Qatar, Vladimir Titorenko, was attacked by Qatari customs officers at the Doha International Airport on November 29. He was returning from a trip to Jordan. Russia is suspending relations with Qatar, after their demands for an explanation were ignored.
Ambassador Titorenko told Russian media, from a hospital, that he was hoping it was due to incompetence (just like our wonderful TSA).
Interestingly, the attack came the same day Russian officials accused Qatar of violating international law by wantonly shipping weapons to Libyan rebels, despite a UN arms embargo: “We know how the arms embargo was applied in Libya. It was used only in respect of the Libyan army, while the opposition got their arms. France and Qatar publicly spoke of such shipments. There were also open mentions of the work of special forces from several European countries. Having adopted the UN Security Council resolution banning the supply of arms, some nations, in fact, boasted that they were in breach of it. We will treat the call for an embargo on arms supplies to Syria in light of the Libya experience, and the behavior of some of our partners. Right now, the most important thing is to stop acting by means of ultimatums and try to move toward political dialogue.”–Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia
Qatar is also doing the same thing in Syria. Ambassador Titorenko was in Jordan trying to get support for a Russian diplomatic plan to stop any attacks by the U.S. and European countries against Syria.
Pro-U.S. Qatar is the current head of the Arab League. Qatar has received at least U.S.$70 billion in investments from the United States (while our economy goes down the toilet).