Qatar's ties to militants complicate relations with U.S., neighbors

Even in a part of the world where tangled alliances are as common as sweet tea, one would be hard-pressed to find a country where the same few sweltering square miles house the sprawling operations hub for a huge U.S.-led air war and provide plush sanctuary to the likes of the Taliban and Hamas, both deemed terrorist groups by Washington.

Perched on a tiny peninsula protruding into the Persian Gulf, Qatar is dwarfed by neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, but has displayed outsize foreign policy ambitions, with the ripple effects of its immense natural gas wealth being felt from the mosque minaret to the executive suite, and on battlegrounds from Libya to Syria and beyond.

The emirate's goal may have been to heighten its influence and prestige by extending a cordial hand to all, but falconry-loving Qatar has lately seen its wings clipped, facing bruising rebukes from its powerful neighbors and Egypt over its long-standing support of Islamist groups, some of them militant ones.

Qatari officials used to have a favorite phrase, that the emirate was punching above its weight. Now the watchwords may be more along the lines of quiet retrenchment.

Amid what had become a rapidly deepening diplomatic isolation in the region, Qatar has scrambled to get back in the good graces of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and to mend fences with Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country and its traditional intellectual center.

The emirate has made symbolic steps such as the never formally acknowledged ejection of seven Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figures, who departed in September for Turkey. It has also moved to stem the flow of funds from wealthy private donors to extremist militantgroups, some via what had heretofore been lightly regulated charities.

Neighbors Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which had withdrawn their ambassadors in a highly public sign of strong displeasure, announced two months ago that they would send their envoys back.

Egyptian officials suggest that President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who was infuriated by Qatar's support for toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, may soon be ready to resume high-level contacts. The likelihood of rapprochement increased recently after Qatar acceded to Cairo's demands to shut down the Brotherhood-boosting Egyptian arm of the emirate's flagship broadcaster Al Jazeera, itself conceived as a projection of Qatari power and prestige, but whose influence has waned in recent years.

Despite conciliatory gestures, however, analysts say Qatar has not wavered in its core belief that political Islam the view that austere Muslim teachings should guide all aspects of society remains the prime long-term force in the region.

Qatar has faced Western pressure over material support it has provided for some radical factions battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, including Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front, and for siding with a self-proclaimed but not internationally recognized Libyan government aligned with Islamist militias from the western city of Misurata.

More:
Qatar's ties to militants complicate relations with U.S., neighbors