A year has passed since one of the largest diplomatic splits in the Gulf Region. Qatar, a small nation of about 2.5 million people, refused to comply with demands from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Qatar refused to allow Prince Salman to achieve absolute control over the region, resulting in a massive diplomatic blockade. The reasoning for this blockade included accusations that Qatar was both actively and complicity supporting terrorism in the region. The political purpose of this move was the destabilization of Qatar and the eradication of Al-Jazeera, a media outlet accused of being propagandic.

Doha, the capital of Qatar, has openly rejected such accusations. The blockade included the halting of air, land, and sea interactions. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) imposed this upon the nation of Qatar, along with a list of demands. Qatari citizens residing within these nations were given two weeks to leave and the four nations demanded that their own citizens living in Qatar return to their nations of origin. Qatar was a nation dependent on imports and, in the wake of this separation, many feared severe economic instability would ensue. The blockade began on June 5th of last year and Amnesty International wrote that the blockade would mean “splitting up families, interrupting students’ education, threatening jobs, raising prices of staple foods in Qatar, and leaving residents of the region facing an uncertain future.”

Qatar was able to overcome most of these economic difficulties, with nations Oman, Morocco, India, Iran, and Turkey increasing food exports. Qatar has surprisingly remained stable, despite having lost the support of four major nations in the area. Qatar has utilized other methods of trade and rerouted flights while increasing their own manufacturing of goods. Many of the newfound relationships Qatar developed violated the demands Saudi Arabia insisted the nation abide by. These demands were vast and included the shutting down of media company Al-Jazeera, the cutting off of diplomacy with Iran, and the severing of military ties with Turkey. Al-Jazeera is seen as a pro-Islamist outlet, although they claim to be unbiased journalism. The Atlantic opposed these perceptions of Al-Jazeera, writing that the station portrays “very little specifically religious content in its broadcasts.” The news station itself has aired Iranian and Israeli perspectives and consistently states they are dedicated to the unbiased mission of journalism. They achieved fame during the war in Afghanistan, where they provided essentially the only live coverage available. As part of the Saudi Coalition’s demands, this news network must be shut down, for they believe it is propaganda used to push a politically based Islamic agenda, although Al-Jazeera has shown that their funding is not connected to the Qatari government.

The Saudi Arabia Coalition accused Qatar of breaking a 2014 agreement with the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) by supporting Iran and Hamas, which is a Palestinian “terrorist” group. The 2014 Jeddah Communiqué is a statement from the GCC, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and the U.S., which is meant to stand against any and all terrorist actions. Hamas is a pro-Palestine organization deemed terrorist by Israel, the U.S., Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Qatar has publicly rejected such accusations, stating they desire peaceful negotiations in the Palestine-Israel conflict. In one of the highly controversial Podesta emails, which were the leaked emails discovered during Ms. Clinton’s presidential campaign, Qatar was cited as giving “financial and logistic” support to ISIL (ISIS). Therefore, the suggestions of support for Hamas came after Qatar was already under suspicion. Back in 2003, Qatari charities were proven to be funding al-Qaeda. The Qatar Charitable foundation was found to be a primary funder of Bin Laden. This led to the U.S. Congress declaring a Qatari citizen, Abd Al-Rahman al-Nuaimi, as a global terrorist. The U.S. Treasury Department wrote that he is a “Qatar-based terrorist financier and facilitator who has provided money and material support and conveyed communications to al-Qa’ida and its affiliates in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen for more than a decade.” Later, in 2014, the House Foreign Affairs Committee agreed that Qatar and Turkey should be subject to U.S. sanctions if they continued demonstrating terrorist sympathies. The international perspective on Qatar is still one of negativity, as exemplified by Ron Prosor’s New York Times article in which he labelled Qatar as a “Club Med for Terrorists.” Qatar has not escaped this title, even in the wake of national improvements in the past year. Now, U.S. President Donald Trump has referred to Qatar as “a funder of terrorism at a high level,” despite previously clear U.S. sentiments towards securing peace in the area through diplomatic methods.

Still, Qatar’s improvement in the past year must be noticed. The first announcement of the blockade led to panic concerning food shortages, which resulted in the complete crashing of the stock market. Qatar’s imports dropped nearly 40%, but now the economy has returned to normal and the International Monetary Fund has projected growth of 2.6% next year, as opposed to 2.1% in 2017. Defying Saudi Arabia’s demand forcing Qatar to break ties with Iran, Qatar has now started working with Iran on creating the largest liquefied natural gas field in the world. Doha has supported local businesses to increase product availability and helped its banks by using state money.

The issues that need to be addressed in Qatar are those regarding human rights, predominantly when dealing with labor workers and women. Women are paid 25 – 50% less than their male counterparts, 51% are in the labor force, and marital rape is not deemed a crime. The kafala system that controls migrant workers is considered a manifestation of modern slavery. The International Trades Union has stated that 1,200 laborers have died working on the 2022 World Cup venue construction. Despite these injustices, Qatar has actually improved since splitting from Saudi Arabia and its allies. The Humans Rights Watch 2018 World Report, which was titled “Qatar: Year of Crisis Spurred Rights Reforms,” delved into the reforms passed during the previous year. The Qatari cabinet approved a domestic workers law that would provide certain protections. They also agreed to reform the discriminatory kafala system, which many nations currently abide by, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Efforts for mediation have been implemented by the U.S., Europe and Kuwait, yet relatively little progress has been made towards unification. While the economic crisis has dwindled, it is the infringements on individual’s rights that are being overlooked. Most international responses are focused on the broader economy, yet the separating of families and the lack of any type of free speech are ignored. The Attorney General of the UAE stated the writing statements of sympathy for Qatar in any format is illegal and will result in 3-15 years imprisonment, along with a fine. Bahrain followed with a similar sentiment, and this ties back to Al-jazeera. What is often overlooked in this conflict is that it is so heavily centered on expression, or the lack thereof. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE all removed access to Qatari news agencies and some nations closed local news offices representing Qatar. Citizens of the gulf region have lost their jobs, mixed families have been separated, and those attending school in other nations have been forced to pause their education. Amnesty International has tracked these cases, including a Saudi Arabian man who was refused the ability to visit his hospitalized mother in Saudi Arabia because he resided in Doha and was married to a Qatari woman. These instances are incredibly common and it is these examples of individual suffering that must be given more attention.

Kuwait leader, Sheikh Sabah, has worked hard to ease tensions, and warned that “Contrary to our wishes and hopes, the Gulf crisis has the potential of escalating; therefore, all of us must be fully aware of its potential consequences…Any escalation will bring with it an outright call for regional and international intervention, which will destroy the security of the Gulf and its people.”

It is the community of people living in GCC states that is primarily being threatened and now that economic stability has been achieved, more work must be done to ease divisions based on nationality. If the states become increasingly polarized, so will the citizens, which will destroy the strong international relationships that have been built.