Qatar: Hamad’s Controversial Legacy

A 18 May 2013 file photo shows Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (R) standing next to his son Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (L) before the Emir Cup final match between Al-Sadd and Al-Rayyan at Khalifa stadium in Doha. (Photo: AFP – Al-Watan Doha- Karim Jaafar)

By: Mayasa al-Muhannadi

Published Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Since seizing power from his father in 1995, Qatar’s former Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani managed to take his country out of obscurity to become a powerful – and controversial – regional player.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa, born 1952, was the oldest son of Qatar’s ruler Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, from whom he seized power in a bloodless coup on 27 June 1995. In his 28-year-reign, the emir succeed in radically transforming the country into a rich and influential regional, even international, power.

Economically, Qatar went from what was effectively a bankrupt state into the world’s largest exporter of liquefied gas, with an income of $200 billion by 2012, placing it at the top of the world’s per capita income bracket. This was accompanied by a frenetic pace of construction and development that made it possible for the little sheikhdom to play a major political role in regional affairs.

At first, the emirate’s foreign policy sought to mediate conflicts and resolve interminable regional crises in places like Sudan, Lebanon, and Palestine. Qatar’s security was in turn guaranteed through an agreement with Washington, allowing the Americans to build their largest military base in the region.

But with onset of the so-called “Arab Spring,” this country of less than 2 million people began to throw its weight around alongside the world’s superpowers, taking sides and making enemies along the way.

Today, Qatar has practically granted Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government $5 billion to buoy the country’s ailing economy, while sparing no effort to support the Syrian opposition with money and arms.

While Doha played a major diplomatic role in overseeing the secession of South Sudan, it completely failed in its attempts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah in Palestine, largely due to the fact that it sided with the former, promising billions to the Gaza government to rebuild the Strip.

This raised suspicions among many in the Arab world regarding Qatar’s real intentions, questioning whether the sheikhdom has become part-and-parcel of Western and Israeli attempts to further divide the region along ethnic and sectarian lines.

In Africa, Doha went further than its regional and international allies in funding radical Islamists in Somalia, Libya, Mali, and Mauritania. Emir Hamad did not hesitate when it came to backing the most radical Islamists elements among the Syrian opposition, even if it meant the country’s destruction, as long as the Assad regime falls.

Just over two years ago, Doha was seen as a friend of the region’s resistance forces such as Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, only to assume its current position as head of a broad alliance – including Washington and Tel Aviv – that seeks to bring down the destruction of Tehran and its allies.

In handing the reigns of power to his son Tamim, Hamad declared that it was time for a new generation to rule. Internally, the emir had agreed to a constitution in 2003, conducted local elections, and promised parliamentary elections before the end of this year.

But the country remains effectively an absolute monarchy and has a long way to go before it can claim to practice the democratic principles it seeks to impose, by force if necessary, on its authoritarian counterparts across the Arab world.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.