What role does North Korea play in the Qatar crisis?

"What role does North Korea play in the Qatar crisis?



A strange role played by North Korea in the crisis in Qatar," the Washington Post reported on the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region.

The newspaper said the Washington Post that North Korea has entered strongly over the past period, on the line of contention between Qatar and the four province countries, "Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain."

The newspaper reported that reports, published last week, revealed the details of a $ 100 million deal signed by North Korea with an Emirati company, which has angered Washington, which is very much afraid of Pyongyang's nuclear program.

She also noted that the arms deal reports appeared to be in response to other claims published on the site of the newspaper "The Hill" US, which indicates that Qatar has strong relations with North Korea, by employing migrant workers from Pyongyang to help build the facilities of the World Cup To be held in Doha in 2022.

All the reports are aimed at influencing the US mediator, so that the other side is inclined, especially after the parties realize that playing the North Korean card is guaranteed because of the apparent hostility between Washington and Pyongyang.

"At least there is a part of the truth in both claims, whether North Korean labor or the 2015 arms deal, and leaked information from an official e-mail to the UAE ambassador to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba," she said.

These reports, and the Washington Post, led to a split within the administration of US President Donald Trump on how to deal with the crisis.

"These reports have also succeeded in a wide divide in the views of the US Congress and lawmakers."

"The main goal of this media campaign for all parties is to win the hearts and minds of the White House and Congress," said Christian Ulrichsen, an expert on Gulf affairs at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The link between the conflict in the Gulf and North Korea's arms deals is not coincidental, it is the mastermind of influencing the US administration.

"These reports should be placed in the context of information warfare, but at the same time, the issue is very serious," said Theodore Karasik, an adviser at the Gulf Analysis Institute in Washington.

Karasek said the Trump administration had pushed many countries to restrict economic ties with North Korea, notably China, and the recent sanctions imposed on China because of its failure to comply with UN sanctions on North Korea. In influencing Trump's position in the crisis.

"It is possible that the United Arab Emirates or Qatar will face a similar response from the United States if these reports are proven," the paper quoted Andrea Berger, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies, as saying.

"Washington can launch warning shots by imposing sanctions on individuals or companies in the region who violate US or international sanctions against North Korea," he said.

"The United States may also resort to a threat from behind the scenes more severe sanctions, if not addressed with such warnings very quickly."

The United States may look at the crisis more broadly. Kuwait, for example, enjoys strong economic ties with North Korea, but Kuwait is always distancing itself from the ongoing conflict and is an important ally of the United States in the region. Making them turn a blind eye to those reports, so as not to resort to the loss of an ally such as Kuwait. "

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