Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 19 /Trend /
Aygul Taghiyeva, Trend Arabic News Service
The overthrow of the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the government of the Muslim Brotherhood organization by Egypt's army and consequently the beginning of large-scale inter-political crisis in the country became a catalyst for some political processes in the Middle East.
The Egyptian crisis has shed light on the relationships between some of the players of the Middle East policy, revealing a backstage attitude of the Arab countries, mainly the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.
In particular, the positions of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in relation to the situation in Egypt are actually a reflection of these countries' relations with each other.
Following the start of the Egyptian conflict, Saudi Arabia immediately supported the Egyptian army calling the supporters of the former President Morsi terrorists and urged the new Egyptian authorities not to stop fighting them.
A similar stance was upheld by the UAE government, which since the early days of establishment of Islamists' ruling in Egypt noticeably worsened relations with Cairo, fearing the growing influence of Muslim Brotherhood on its territory. The UAE certainly was rejoicing at the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and according to some sources, even assisted the overthrow.
However, unlike these two countries, a very different stance was taken by Qatar - Doha strongly condemned the use of force against demonstrators in Egypt and urged the world community to stop the killing of peaceful demonstrators.
In addition, when Morsi's overthrow in Egypt was followed by aid in amoint of billions of Arab monarchs, Qatar decided to stay away and did not provide any financial assistance to Hazem Bablavi's interim government.
Qatar and Turkey also support the position of Muslim Brotherhood, and hold talks for the solution of the Egyptian crisis, naturally in favour of the Islamists.
As a response to this, the authorities of Saudi Arabia launched a "political attack" in search of allies in Europe, with which the country could coordinate powers and resolve the Egyptian crisis to its advantage.
Discrepancy of views on the situation in Egypt actually demonstrates that Qatar and Saudi Arabia - the main players among the Arab monarchies - have reached a new stage of the competition for leadership in the Persian Gulf region and in the region of Arab countries in general.
Since the beginning of Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, Qatar has shown itself as a new and important player in the political processes in the Arab world.
Qatar was the first country to allocate military assistance, including attack helicopters for the armed opposition in Libya during the revolution.
In addition, Qatar is the initiator and organizer of many international conferences on the revolutions in Arab countries.
Recently, there has been some convergence between Qatar and Iran, which is a clear foe of such Persian Gulf Arab countries as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.
After the transfer of power by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to his son Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in late June 2013, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi visited Qatar, to personally congratulate Tamim, with the new title.
During the meeting, Qatar's new Emir said that Iran and Qatar will be able to agree on the situation in Syria, also confirmed the need to involve Iran in the settlement of regional conflicts.
In addition, after the election of the new Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Qatar has become the first country of the Persian Gulf to congratulate him on his appointment.
Thus, moving closer to Iran, Qatar is once again trying to increase the independence of its foreign policy from other Persian Gulf countries and consolidate its status of the new leader among the countries of the region.
A coldness of relations is obviously increasing between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which uphold different stances in the situation with the Muslim Brotherhood, and perhaps the leadership of one of these countries in the region depends on the further fate of the Egypt's people.