Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Alwaght- Tension between Qatar and Saudi Arabia heightened as the Syrian crisis arose. Both countries take the current developments in Syria as an opportunity to strike at the Axis of Resistance, and bring their allies into power and consequently extend their regional influence. Aimed at weakening the Axis of Resistance, the Saudi Arabia tried to exploit the Syrian crisis to control and weaken the regionally extended role of Qatar. In this sense, the Syrian crisis has been an opportunity for Riyadh to restrain Qatar’s intense activities in the West Asia, activities that Riyadh believed to have received support from the Muslim Brotherhood, and targeted Saudi Arabia from inside and outside, and would raise the possibility of internal or regional issues for Saudi Arabia.  
During the Islamic Awakening, Qatar made attempts to become a regional players. To pursue this objective, it would naturally face conflicting regional approaches of Saudi Arabia. In this sense, Qatar first was trying to replace Saudi Arabia’s position in the Persian Gulf through cooperation with the United States and reordering its own priorities according to those of Washington. Second, Qatar sought to replace the Salafi Islam of Saudi Arabia with the Muslim Brotherhood's discourse. the US was closer to the Brotherhood’s discourse. Third, Qatar was trying to replace Saudi Arabia’s regional allies with different players that are naturally closer to the Muslim Brotherhood. In all the above issues, conflict with Saudi Arabia was inevitable. As a result, Qatar reordered its regional priorities to better cooperate with the US and the international community. At the regional level, Qatar strengthened its relations with Saudi Arabia’s opponents and helped to strengthen the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. Naturally these changes, before Islamic Awakening, made Qatar to establish close ties with Iran, the Axis of Resistance and the Muslim Brotherhood; however, during the Islamic Awakening, Qatar come into conflict with the Axis of Resistance. For Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s support from the Muslim Brotherhood, aroused its domestic and regional concerns, and consequently heightened the tension between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia, unhappy and worried about the impacts of the Islamic Awakening, believed the changes in the regional order is to his opponents’ benefit, and took advantage of the crisis in Syria to affect the regional order. This part of the Saudi Arabia’s policy on Syria, was against Iran and its regional allies. To weaken Iran's allies in Damascus was in favor of Saudi allies and clearly aimed at changing the regional order. It is clear that the fall of Mubarak and Ben Ali, and even spread of protests to Yemen and Bahrain, severely undermined the so-called “the Arab moderate Axis” in the regional level. From this perspective, the crisis in Syria could topple the Assad government, and differently reproduce the balance between the two main axes in the region.
Qatar’s approach to Syria was different from that of Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s primary objective was not to weaken the Axis of Resistance. But the Syrian crisis, more than anything was an opportunity for Doha to strengthen its competitive position in the region, especially in competition with Riyadh. Qatar’s interests in Syria, included a set of strategic, economic, political and ideological concerns. Qatar, immune from the spread of Islamist movements into its territory, took advantage of the Syrian crisis to overthrow Assad government and bring its own Brotherhood allies into power. Qatar believed such a change could bring strategic, economic, ideological and political interests for Qatar and its newly found role in the region.
While Qatar, like Turkey, gave support to Ahrar Al-Sham and Al-nusra Front and other smaller Syrian groups, and reportedly provided significant aids to ISIS, Saudi Arabia supported manageable movements such as Jaish Al-Islam and the Free Syrian Army and was trying to give them a central role among the Syrian opposition groups. Therefore, Qatar gave priority to bringing into power the Muslim Brotherhood or more radical movements, while Saudi Arabia approached more secular opposition movements. Saudi Arabia showed that it does not make difference between secular and Islamist groups, as it gave support to such movements as Jaish Al-Islam, and what mattered for it were just the loyalty and the controllability of the movements receiving its support. Thus, competition between Qatar and Saudi Arabia led to intense disputes among the Syrian opposition groups, and consequently, the two countries inadvertently helped their regional rivals.
The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar over Syrian crisis, on one hand, and also between Qatar and Turkey, on the other hand arose to the extent that led to apparent disputes between the two countries which were represented in their media and the movement each country supported. Finally, the conflicts made Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) to recall Qatar’s ambassador. This did not lead to significant changes in Qatar’s policy on Syria; however, the country's conflict with Saudi Arabia, over Syria, was handled at least in the media. While Qatar abandoned its effective role in Syria cut its support for Muslim Brotherhood in its Al Jazeera TV Channel under the pressures from PGCC, Turkey played a significant role in this issue and followed the same way, with objectives similar to those of Qatar’s in Syria.  
The death of King Abdullah brought about fundamental changes in Saudi’s policies in the West Asia. As it will be explained in detail in the next part, King Abdullah made extensive changes in Saudi Arabia's regional policies which were centered on getting close to the Muslim Brotherhood and taking advantage of their potentials in regional competition with Iran and its regional allies. Meanwhile, the conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Qatar were almost settled, and in the new period, there is a synergy of the policies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey on regional crises, especially crises in Yemen and Syria. As a result, the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia over Syria has settled at least in the short term, and tactically the two countries preferred collaboration on Syrian crisis to competition. This resulted in the formation of the Jaish Al-Fatah which is comprised of movements supported by Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Some analysts believe that conflicts between Qatar and Saudi Arabia were just tactical, and not strategically significant; therefore, such disputes should not be taken serious.
In general, we may conclude that Islamic Awakening, under the guise of an ideological conflict, resulted in a political rivalry between the member states of PGCC. It should be noted that fierce competition was the result of changes in regional policies of Qatar, and it was evident that Saudi Arabia will mainly respond reactively. Qatar out of the frameworks set by Riyadh, during the Islamic Awakening seized the opportunity to take a role independent from Riyadh and in coordination with Washington. King Abdullah primarily tried to draw Qatar’s support from the Muslim Brotherhood and withdrew the US support from empowering the Muslim Brotherhood. It seems that the fall of the Morsi Government in Egypt and the death of King Abdullah changed the priorities of Saudi Arabia in responding to regional developments. Today, Saudi Arabia is trying to take the initiative, and make Qatar and other PGCC member states to cooperate with it. In this regard, King Salman’s getting close to the Muslim Brotherhood paved the way for agreement with Qatar; however, this gradually got the UAE away from the regional priorities of Riyadh. It seems that the disputes among the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar over interaction with the Muslim Brotherhood and other important issues such as Yemen, are gradually being escalated.