Paris - (AFP) - Qatar , the small desert Gulf state neighboring the giant Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has succeeded in becoming a major player on the international scene in three decades, by pursuing a simple but effective strategy of buying influence in all fields based on the proceeds from the sale of gas.
From economic investments abroad to sports and good diplomatic endeavors, Qatar provides no way to increase its influence in the world and to be present in an Arab-Iranian milieu shaken by crises.
"There is a desire among them to be present on the world map, to have weight, to be friends with everyone, and to talk to people Others don't talk to them."
He added that they "knew how to make themselves essential".
"They are not dogmatic, they are pragmatic. They think about their strategy very carefully in general with a central idea that says 'who finances influences' and this leads to a tendency to buy off a lot of people, sometimes with questionable means from a legal point of view," Malbrunot said.
This largesse is currently the focus of a resounding corruption scandal in Brussels, where it is suspected that a number of members of the European Parliament, including its vice-president - Greek Socialist Representative Eva Kaili - received large sums of money from Qatar to defend its interests.
Qatar, which has been ruled by Al-Thani for decades, does not enjoy a large size in the rankings of global statistics, as its population is less than three million people and its area does not exceed 11,500 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than the island of Corsica.
This small country, a close ally of the United States and France, which embraces a very conservative Islam, depends to a large extent on its vast oil and gas resources.
"They have become useful and many countries consider them as such," a former French ambassador to Qatar told AFP. "Of course it is useful to have money, but it's not just that, they have a unique sense of opportunity and they know how to negotiate," said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
The first successful blow to Qatari leaders dates back to the 1990s with the launch of Al-Jazeera TV, which aspired to give voice to all the sensitivities of the Arab world for the first time. The channel broadcasts in a number of languages with 80 bureaus around the world, and is sometimes described as "CNN Arabia".
It was especially the voice of the Arab Spring movements, although its critics considered that its editorial line was excessively supportive of the Islamists, and they sometimes see it as a tool in the service of Qatari diplomacy.
Added to all this is a very effective "sports diplomacy", especially through the organization of major international competitions - the latest of which is the World Cup in football - and the launch of the famous sports channel "beIN" in the first decade of the current century, or even the purchase of world-class football clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain.
The emirate may be a candidate to host the 2036 Olympics.
At the same time, the gas-rich country has invested in major international groups (Volkswagen, Vinci, Hapag-Lloyd, Barclays...) or in real estate, often through its sovereign fund, Qatar Investment, one of the most important investment funds in the world.
All this is in addition to financing at least 140 projects in recent years for mosques, schools and Islamic centers in Europe, for the benefit of associations often linked to the controversial Muslim Brotherhood movement, as revealed by the book "Qatar Documents".
But Qatar's influence in the diplomatic arena may be the greatest.
"They decided to talk to everyone, the United States, Iran, Israel, Hamas and the Taliban, because they seek to consolidate their position as a major player and mediator in the region," said Emma Soubrier, associate researcher at the Institute for Peace and Development at the University of Côte d'Azur in Nice.
In the Qatari capital, Doha, for example, Washington and the Taliban negotiated the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, and the dialogue continues between the United States and the country's new rulers.
Doha was also the logistical base from which Westerners and some Afghans were evacuated from Kabul after the victory of the Taliban.
Emma Sobrier told AFP that Qatari diplomacy falls especially within the framework of "an increasingly intense competition with the United Arab Emirates, which is very bold in influence operations on a global level, and to a lesser extent with Saudi Arabia."
And this competition turned into a crisis. For more than three years from June 2017 to the official reconciliation in January 2021, the Qatari economy was affected by embargoes imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt.
These countries accused Doha, despite its denials, of supporting extremist groups and drawing close to Shiite Iran, Saudi Arabia's major rival in the region.
