Qatar falling into the lap of Tehran to work around the boycott was very well expected. It was all the more evident when the mullah regime offered it full support on various fronts, including political, logistic and military. Besides opening up the Bushehr Port to serve Qatar and airlifting supplies to the country, there comes news of the arrival of a battalion of Iranian Revolutionary Guard to protect the palaces in Doha. But what was unexpected was Qatar towing the line of Iran as regards to the Haj. Iran has always sought to politicize the Haj and has attempted to spread chaos and falsehoods during the pilgrimage season. This goes to show that Qatar has been taking orders from the supreme leader of Iran and his cronies from the very early days of the boycott. The Iranians are old hands at the game of disruption and have been trying to prevent their citizens from performing the Hajl by suspending the electronic registration, putting obstacles through travel agencies, defaming Saudi Arabia, and approaching international bodies with frivolous complaints. But no one ever imagined that Qatar would follow the mullah agenda to this extent. The Qatari propaganda machinery is incessantly trying to sway public opinion against the Kingdom through a network of phony commentators, such as Azmi Bishara. The Al-Jazeera channel continues to feed fabrications and lies to the Qatari people, who, incidentally, are even now considered to be brothers by the Saudis. The Muslim Brotherhood adds to the misinformation campaign through its own social media campaigns. The Qatari regime is reeling under the crisis, and is trying to circumvent it through cheap tactics. It has turned to be a façade for the Iranians, working not only against the Saudi Arabia, but against Arabs and Sunnis. But the Saudi regime remains strong, with the world on its side, and has successfully pushed back scores of Persian plans in the past. The Saudi government offers outstanding services to pilgrims in the holy sites spending billions, with the help of trained personnel who number more than the entire population of Qatar. Does Qatar really understand that it has failed miserably over the past two years in its game of tricks? Has its masters in Tehran also realized this? Qatar should know by now that its mask for Iran will not hold for long. There is no escape from this reality.
