Qatar is just a vassal state

After former Qatari ruler Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani was deposed in a coup d’état by his own son Hamad in 1995, Western governments, including the United States, decided to define a new role for the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom in which they would use it as a tool to increase their clout in the Middle East region.
Strengthening ties with major resistance movements in the Arab world, including the Muslim Brotherhood, was the main policy in this endeavor, and Qatar started to pretend that it wants to use its huge wealth to help the resistance against Israel. This was promoted by Al Jazeera, which began as an Arabic language broadcaster but gradually expanded into a network with several stations in multiple languages, and Doha created the false impression that it wants to support an alternative media discourse that is meant to help the Muslim Brotherhood and other major resistance movements in the region.
In the wake of recent political developments in the Arab world, Qatar started to highlight the role of the Brotherhood in the uprisings against Arab dictators. The policy also included the offshoots of the group, such as the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas. Over the years, some influential media activists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood were also recruited by Al Jazeera to promote the idea.
However, despite the huge investments made by the Qatari ruler, the country has very little influence on major political developments, and it is still regarded as an agent of the West in the region. In other words, Qatar still does not have a say of its own in regional equations, and every position adopted by Doha seems to be directly dictated by Washington. Qatar’s support for the Brotherhood and its activities in the Arab world is also in line with the U.S. policy to control the Arab Spring.
However, the U.S. clearly wants Qatar to play the role of an agent and nothing more. To this end, Doha should avoid creating any friction with major regional powers, including Iran, because that could cause embarrassment for Western governments and could also greatly threaten their interests. The United States and Israel are the main beneficiaries of such a situation, and Qatar will never be anything more than a vassal state in its diplomatic endeavors in the Middle East.
Source: Tehran Times