Qatar Cut Off: The Internet Doesn’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

Published June 5th, 2017 - 10:20 GMT
From left to right: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; Saudi King Salman; Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (Khaled DESOUKI, Fayez Nureldine, Mandel NGAN, Lucas JACKSON/AFP)
From left to right: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; Saudi King Salman; Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (Khaled DESOUKI, Fayez Nureldine, Mandel NGAN, Lucas JACKSON/AFP)

In a dramatic twist of the ongoing Gulf crisis, Qatar woke up this morning to find itself cut off by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and, for good measure, Egypt.

While not entirely without warning - tensions flared last month after provocative comments on Iran and Hamas were attributed to Qatar’s Emir - the move has been quite a shock.

Naturally, then, Gulf Twitter was stunned into silence - for all of ten seconds. Before responding with such intensity that the hashtag “relations with Qatar cut” began trending worldwide.

Inevitably, many have resorted to humor to deal with the sudden and acute rift that has formed across the GCC region.

“Oman and Kuwait be like:”

Oman and Kuwait are the only GCC nations not to have broken off ties with Qatar at this stage. In fact, the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani last week made a visit to the latter in an attempt to patch up relations with his neighbors.

“Iran has accepted your friend request”

While today's rift has been blamed on Qatar's alleged support for "terrorism", another of the main issues that has sparked divisions is its apparent friendliness with Saudi Arabia’s main foe, Iran. In the comments attributed to Sheikh Tamim and taken at face value by Qatar’s neighboring states, he reportedly said “there is no wisdom in harboring hostility towards Iran”.

While Qatari authorities claimed the statements were fabricated, other GCC states felt that what they saw as Sheikh Tamim’s apparent ‘pro-Iranian’ stance was reaffirmed by his decision last week to take a phone call from Iran’s newly re-elected president, Hassan Rouhani.

Many Twitter users, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have stood by their governments and are pleased to see the back of close relations with Qatar.

“Bye bye”

“See that door - go out of it.”

You see that door - go take a hold of it, and I don’t want to see you.

Still, it’s not a laughing matter for many others who have tweeted their sadness about this pronounced and uncompromising regional divorce.  

In fact, a hashtag was launched, “the leaders of Qatar do not represent its people”, in order to offer expressions of solidarity and fraternity with ordinary Qataris.

"You will always be our neighbors and family"

All of our appreciation and respect goes to the Qatari people… as for the government, the problem is bigger than the solution.

"What about those who have to leave?"

Qataris in Saudi, the Emirates and Bahrain reportedly have just two weeks to return home. A ban on all Qatari visitors to those countries will also be put in place.

"Way to separate families for Eid"

This basically sums it up:

RA

Tags:AlKuwaitHamasTamim bin Hamad Al ThaniHassan Rouhani
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