The lion of Arab

The world is looking to Doha as a new center of diplomacy

The royal chamber, where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) stood uneasily till the last moments of FIFA World Cup 2022 stunner between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Argentina, was oozing with jubilation. The prince went so far as to embrace his close aides present in the chamber as his team clinched victory in the second-half of the match from the jaws of defeat.

Qatar’s largest Lusail Stadium was overcrowded and emotions ran wild. The victory in the football stadium for the Kingdom was great. It, however, was greater for Qatar on the global diplomatic horizon. MBS’s spontaneous gesture of festivity in his chamber is akin to a standing ovation to the diplomatic miracle of Qatari Ameer, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.

Before we discuss this global diplomatic aspect of the game, we may look at its relevance to Pakistan’s local affairs. MBS, actually, was supposed to land in Islamabad on November 21 and be around at the time he was standing in his chamber to watch the match on a mega screen.

Regardless of the conspiracy theories spun around by different spin doctors, it remains a fact that he preferred watching the match to visiting Islamabad. At the same time, it has not dissuaded Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif from congratulating the prince and his country upon the rare victory!

Now that the local context is clear, we can evaluate the global aspect. Qatari Ameer is known as Tamim-al Arab. I remember the last time I visited Qatar was in 2019 to attend the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), arranged by Qatar Foundation. Among many new things was the increase in plastering of Ameer Tamim’s photo on lavish vehicles with a tag reading Tamim al Arab.

The vehicles plastered were very special and ubiquitous, the Indian chauffeur who was driving me and journalist Ahsan Raza to the hotel, told us on the way. “It means ‘lion of Arab.”

At that time, Qatar was under a blockade placed around it by the Saudi-led alliance. The United Arab Emirate (UAE), KSA, Bahrain, and Egypt had all put a blockade on Qatar from air, sea and land routes and cut diplomatic ties with this geographically tiny state back in 2017.

MBS, then, also threatened to unleash an armed onslaught on its neighbour. All trade with Qatar was cut off. Even the Qataris living in these countries were not allowed to stay or unite with their families. The Qatari students had to go back home, leaving their studies incomplete. It was a concerted move to isolate Qatar and leave it to rot.

All the same, Ameer Tamim held his ground, trusting his diplomatic team, eager to get through what he called “futile crisis.” Tamim is western-educated and had understood at the beginning of his rule that neutrality was Qatar’s diplomatic power, unrivaled by any other state in the Gulf region.

Smaller countries like Switzerland and Austria have become the center of the global decision-making process because they maintain neutrality. Even world powers like the United States and China rely on these smaller countries for pursuit of diplomatic solutions to their problems.

Qatar, being small in size compared to its neighbors, exercised the power of neutrality in global trouble spots like Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. It worked. If we exclude the example of Taiwan as diplomatic representative of China in Washington until Henry Kissinger warmed up to China, we could rarely find a precedent to hosting of global dialogue with representatives of Afghan factions in Doha. Even today, the Karzai-led Afghan representatives are acknowledged as true Afghan diplomats in world capitals, while Taliban try to carry out their counselor affairs only from Islamabad and Peshawar.

Similarly, Qatar is the first country to acknowledge majority opposition leaders as representatives of Syria. Qatar was also the only Arab country to back pro-people arguments raised during the Arab Spring in countries like Tunis, Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Bahrain etc. The Saudis were backing the monarchs at all these places; hence, seeing Qatar as a big roadblock on its way.

Similarly, the first impression Doha gives to any outsider is that it can be a substitute to Dubai. The concentration of global trade leaders and modern buildings on the ever-growing roads of the city is a clear sign that it can be another Dubai in the region.

Hence the big two in the Gulf – KSA and UAE – had been equally offended by Qatar. The last straw on the camel’s back was Doha’s policy of no red tapes in dealing with Iran, especially after the Houthi uprising in Yemen. It boiled up into a blockade of Qatar in 2017.

Ameer Tamim skillfully dealt with it as he organised the Military Maritime Fair a year after the blockade in 2018. All major powers, European or American, were lured to the fair, ignoring the blockade. No one could afford to ignore the world’s biggest liquified natural gas producer, arms purchaser, and a real estate destination.

When I visited Doha in 2019, the country was preparing for a mega sports diplomacy event titled 24th Arabian Gulf Cup tournament in which soccer teams from KSA, UAE and other gulf countries were formally invited. It was a giant leap in the run-up to the world’s biggest sports diplomatic event of FIFA World Cup 2022.

Commenting on the diplomatic importance of the Qatar initiative, FIFA President Gianni Infantino last year told the closing session of the Sports Diplomacy Conference, “Sports diplomacy is a relatively new term…, which describes an old practice: the use of sport to realise policy goals, to help bring about positive social change. Harnessing the power of football to benefit society, through the team-work of our partnerships, is sports diplomacy in action.”

If we say that 2022 is the year of success in sports diplomacy, it will not be an overstatement. At the start of the year in February, China hosted the Winter Olympics, officially boycotted by the US and allies. But the boycott could not prevent hosting of cosey huddles of world leaders in Beijing. Now the year is coming to a close with another big sports diplomacy success in Qatar.

MBS is not alone in giving Qatar standing ovations from his royal chamber. The world is looking to Doha as a new center of diplomacy and Tamim has truly emerged as the “lion of Arab”.

The writer teaches mediatization at International Islamic University Islamabad