Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Qatar’s new emir has lowered his nation’s profile in the
Middle East.

Western diplomats and analysts said Emir Tamim Bin Khalifa has
ordered a new foreign policy in wake of his dismissal of Prime Minister
Hamad Bin Jassim in June.

The diplomats said the 33-year-old Tamim sought to increase cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the United States while reducing tensions with neighboring Iran.

“Tamim has garnered a consensus within the royal family to reduce Qatar’s high-profile diplomacy and focus on national and regional issues,” a diplomat said.

The policy was said to have been drafted in the spring of 2013 before Tamim succeeded his father, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. The diplomats said Tamim and Hamad agreed that Qatar’s pro-Islamist intervention in such countries as Egypt, Libya and Syria was angering Doha’s allies while exposing the Gulf Cooperation Council emirate to an Iranian backlash.

“Tamim argued that as a tiny country Qatar was making too many enemies
and needed to take a step back,” the diplomat said.

As a result, Qatar decided to reduce its profile in the Sunni revolt in
Syria as well as in Egypt. The diplomats said Doha was also reaching out to
longtime rival Saudi Arabia, which became the main supporter of the Syrian
rebels.

A leading Saudi analyst, Abdul Aziz Sager, chairman of the Gulf Research
Center, said Hamad informed the Saudi leadership in late 2012 of a
forthcoming regime shakeup in Doha. Sager said Riyad became the first
foreign country to be told of Hamad’s plan to abdicate.

“It [Saudi] welcomed that,” Sager said.

Qatar’s new policy led to the immediate dismissal of Hamad Bin Jassim,
for 20 years regarded as the most powerful politician in the emirate. Within
a week, the British-educated Tamim stripped Hamad Bin Jassim of all his
government and economic powers, including deputy director of the Qatar
Investment Authority.

Under Hamad Bin Jassim, Qatar also sought to mediate a resolution of the
war in Afghanistan. The diplomats said the previous regime allowed the
Taliban movement to open an office in Doha in an effort to facilitate talks
with the United States.

But one of the first decisions taken by Tamim, for the last five years
in charge of internal security, was to restrict Taliban. Diplomats said
Qatar forced the closure of the Taliban office — called “the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan” — on request from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“Tamim understood that a Taliban presence could eventually destabilize
the country,” a Gulf source said.

The diplomats said the regime change in Qatar could serve to ease
tension with such countries as Egypt, Iran and the United States. Egypt and
Iran have been angered by Qatar’s financing of Islamist militias while
Washington was unhappy with Qatar’s aid to Al Qaida-aligned groups.

Turkey, however, appeared troubled by the departure of Hamad Bin Jassim.
The analysts said under the outgoing prime minister, Ankara and Doha
coordinated in helping Sunni rebels in Syria and the Hamas regime in the
Gaza Strip.

“Qatar’s active foreign policy has come to an end,” Sinan Ulgen,
chairman of the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy
Studies, said. “With the new ruler, it is not possible to see Qatar playing
an active role in regional issues, including Syria — a situation which
would have a negative impact on Turkey’s foreign policy.”

  Emir Tamim Bin Khalifa, Hamad Bin Jassim, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, New emir to overhaul foreign policy: Qatar was ‘making too many enemies’, new foreign policy, Qatar was ‘making too many enemies’: New emir