Mideast ‘brothers’ lay seige to Qatar as World Cup looms   

But this seemingly domestic dispute has far-reaching consequences in terms of realigning the Middle East’s established order, with Turkey meddling as usual and Egypt trying to stay on the winners’ side. 
Despite Qatar’s obvious sympathies directed at unsavoury players in the region such as Iran, Lebanon’s rogue Hezbollah and Gaza’s terrorist rulers Hamas, doubled by huge financial contributions to the latter two, one cannot help feeling sorry about the way the cheeky Qatari Al-Jazeera TV network has been singled out for immediate closure, no less, by the Saudi-led anti-Qatar coalition. If one ignores the relentless pro-Palestinian propaganda on its English-language channel, they do pretty informative and exciting reporting. 
It is of course ironic that Al-Jazeera’s prying reporters can hang around freely in Israel, but cannot do so in Cairo, Riyadh or Abu Dhabi. While the network now laments the role of politics in its international relations, this is precisely what Qatar does by not allowing Israelis into their country, which raises the troubling question of whether the 2022 football World Cup, hosted by Qatar, will be open to all – or will the very politics that now plague the tiny Gulf state play first fiddle.
Andy Leitner
Bangkok