roger logical rational logical you must ask if they demand a very small percent of a large us you're watching the news from berlin up next is the documentary the arrival princes of the gulf all the latest news and information visit our website e.w. dot com i'm told me a lot of thought it's been a pleasure having you with us. because time to take one step further and face the. time to such the. fun for the troops. time to come down troops and to connect the world it's time to turn d.w.m. . coming up ahead.

this is the story of a power struggle between 3 princes 3 rulers who all came to power between 20132015 in the richest oil monarchies of the world saudi arabia qatar and the united arab emirates. a generation with unbridled ambition and dreams of shaping the future of the arab world. these are people who think that this power is given to them forever so it's clear that these powerful men are just like spoiled children. the rivalry between these 3 men has plunged the gulf region into a crisis like no other.

at 34 mohammed bin son or m.p.s. is the youngest he rules saudi arabia his favorite pastime is 1st person shooter video games. mama been so money he's someone who lives in this old tyria world where you know you can control this entire game with a joystick you're the master of death and live. i think. what's remarkable about him is ease shoot 1st you know and ask questions were. hailed as a reformer by the west riyadh's new strongman demonstrated his brutality as soon as he assumed power by declaring a war in yemen. the conflict her.

already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of. lives. on the arabian peninsula or on the borders of the saudi kingdom mohammed bin someone has found a useful ally mohammed bin zayed or m.b. zed. he's the crown prince of abu dhabi and rules the united arab emirates. mohammed bin. ziad is a military man his mindset is very militaristic he uses the army as a means to gain more power. lobbies own particular has paranoia about being surrounded by people who cannot trust. him with the tanks little want.

to establish their dominance in the middle east m.b.'s and m.b. said identified an enemy that needed to be defeated. this unpopular neighbor is accused of collusion with islamist groups and having close relations with iran. but one of the biggest grievances with time in our fanny the emyr of qatar is how his overshadow the other 2 by staging the next football world cup in qatar. because the princes of the gulf states know each other well there is this clash of ambitions that poly explains the crisis in relations between qatar and certain of its neighbors. in the gulf criticizing the royal family is considered treason punishable by prison or even death. no one has dared to send saudi journalist john marcus shaadi was murdered in the saudi consulate. in istanbul.

his crime publicly criticizing m.b.'s the crown prince of saudi arabia. today only foreign observers are able to freely discuss these personal quarrels which often evolve into state affairs and upsets the geopolitical balance. of. the gulf is far away from most for most europeans geographically but since the arab spring with the old powerhouses of egypt syria libya and also iraq obviously earlier collapsing and disintegrating and disappearing the new powerhouses of the arab world are on the gulf. belief and you heard the ruling families of the gulf are in fact tribes who gradually rose to power in the 18th 19th and 20th centuries with anything to

protect these families were living as bad winds and essentially nomadic existence with little other than small scale farming and fishing that they should have. relations says made the wealth and prosperity of any businessman was measured by the number of camels he had that he did that song. look look look you don't leave the hole something that all the gulf countries have in common is the fact that up until the 1st oil crisis in 1973 they remain relatively poor as before the. change obviously came quite quickly and almost brutally i would say. in the e.u. leaders who rose to power in the 20 ten's represented a generational shift unlike their fathers they had no memory of the harsh lives their families had lead in the desert they were born into

a life of wealth and opulence. they extravagant crown prince of saudi arabia is rumored to have bought the most expensive painting in the world to solve it on monday by leonardo da vinci. $400000000.00 since the period of the paris. so. it was allegedly a gift for his friend and ally m.b. said the crown prince of abu dhabi who opened his own louvre museum designed by the architect. the same french architect was commissioned by qatar as well family to design the brand new national museum in doha. so that there is a sort of political one upmanship in terms of which emirate will invest the most in museums for example or other cultural endeavors in the end this rivalry between

these emirates is to determine who is more committed to efforts to modernize. the states know very well that one day the oil will run out and that they now need to attract capital advertising and tourists. you 43 need to have the city with the tallest building in the world or the most expensive all the curious place you. yeah it's a childish race to be the biggest and the best. fail we're dealing with monarchs who are driven by a need for power who have an enormous amount of hubris that kind of pride.

and a country that is so small and yet so rich must spend vast amounts of money to attract the spotlights. and so in 2013 when tommy came to power in cattle then 33 year old sports enthusiast inherited the task of staging the world's most watched sports event. we are very proud that we're going to be hosting the world cup in. 2022 this world cup is for all the arabs it was for they will not be successful we said that this whole world cup is for all the arabs and that's why we're successful that's a big challenge. thanks to its wealth from oil and natural gas at the pub these football club and some of the world's most expensive play is to boost the reputation of this country with just 2600000 inhabitants. sort as

a way for qatar is to gain unparalleled publicity. to lose everyone loves sport it's broadcast 24 hours a day all over the world investing in sport is investing in visibility it's the way to get fast recognition for. those decisions are not questioned on the streets of doha nor are the scandals that accompany the sport based diplomacy the accusations of corruption and the many deaths on the building sites of the world cup stadiums. we are in the other steps. other live something special you know the 1st arab country and you know it's qatar you're going to be historic like saudi but he is the 1st to take this terrorism for the world cup so. he would be jealous.

at the end of the last world cup a saudi newspaper printed a very telling headline could 2018 world cup is over see you for the next one in 2026. of course what's implied is that the 2022 world cup doesn't exist this anecdote shows that it's hard to swallow for the iraqi political elites. is it pretty. any of. the villages of the neighboring countries could no longer stand to watch matches on qatari channels so they decided to attack one of the flagships. sports enterprise. and all of a sudden a ghost channel appeared a broadcaster no one had heard of until then that's called. the. mocking of the name of being so it's the opposite of being is be out to me is that

simple and they had a queue on the end to represent qatar so be out could talk ok with you this is so you see the school through your media for channel 232 seconds and 6 seconds. to taishi piece. will be. soon. this is. quite some of the n.b.a. the n.f.l. the super bowl final every sport you can think of is being pirated we don't exactly know who's behind it but it's a saudi entity so that is pirated from saudi arabia be in is claiming $1000000000.00 euros in damages plus interest and qatar has filed a complaint with the world trade organization. this is piracy on an unseen scale and it's by no means harmless it reveals the

rifts in the gulf and the conflict that has been destabilizing an entire every chance. for us to better understand this tension between tom email funny on the one side and mohamed bin salman and mohammed bin zayed on the other we have to go back several years. and the real split in the region stems from the arab spring. no you know. it's not so subtle glory princes came to power after the start of the arab spring. funny in 203900. 24 team and mohammed bin simon in 2015. all of these rulers included the arab spring and their political strategies. many of the determinants. when the arab spring began the 1st reaction

of the 3 countries saudi arabia qatar and the u.a.e. was to increase the salaries of all civil servants. i think for the gulf monarchies . certainly for m.b.a.'s and friend busy they're horrified by by the arab spring it's like. man they're coming for us and we got it we got a real. bonus of qatar didn't feel threatened by the arab spring mainly because it's the smallest of the 3 countries in terms of population there are simply not enough people to form an organized opposition in the. same group but it's the least populated of the 3 countries but also the richest qatar has one of the highest g.d.p. per capita on the planet. so the motivation to challenge the power of the unfunny

family is extremely low or even nonexistent it's. in existence. the. emir of qatar and the royal family there their reaction the arab spring is very different in some ways it's like more sophisticated they thought you know we've got to this is a big wave come in and we've got to get on the web and write it you know and that's the only way we're going to survive because we can't fight it. and qatar has its own unique way of influencing the course of history the most watched news channel in the arab world. i think without al-jazeera the arab spring wouldn't have run as smoothly let's put it that way. algis era is an entity that is obviously state owned it was set up in 1906 as part of the vision of the older media to cause someone to liberalize civil society in the arab world it was all about you know allowing

people to speak up against or for terror and oppression for example across the region al jazeera was always a giving a voice to anyone and al-jazeera you could be a shia radical and you could speak there you could be a sunni radical you could speak to. a movie more well you would. i live in. this. this cold to murder the libyan dictator was made by one of the leaders of the muslim brotherhood a political refugee and. so the feeling was that al-jazeera was increasingly trying to give voice to opponents of the arab world in particular to the muslim brotherhood resemble. the guitar use have also financed and islamist movements in libya and syria and internees and egypt they have contributed to the electoral victories of the muslim brotherhood.

the. saudis and iraq has have seen how they worst enemies gain power and do everything to overthrow them. the 2 countries staked everything on the return of the military in order to eliminate the muslim brotherhood. in egypt they chose to support general el-sisi and guarantee him financial aid. under his command the egyptian army staged a coup that ended in a bloodbath. the

egyptian regime took revenge on by sentencing a team of al jazeera reports his 23 years in prison. and that's how the rich deepened on the arabian peninsula between qatar on the one hand and saudi arabia and the united arab emirates on the other. in the united arab emirates there's an extreme concentration of power in the hands of the crown prince of abu dhabi who has reigned in all his brothers here. to. mohammed bin zayed 1st project was to create a credible army and to focus all its military strategy around the protection of its borders but it's one of the last.

bins and attended centers the prestigious british military academy he has a pretty near like side to his personality he's very determined. mohammed things ayat has always been fascinated by new military technology and every 2 years he organizes what is now the largest worldwide. these arms fair really is a baby more which is why he always goes there without fail and visit each of the stats showing just how much he is in his element in this environment. using his checkbook to claim his see the crown prince himself a former helicopter pilot has managed to attract plenty of western sympathy. the united arab emirates has become one of the most militarized countries per capita on

the planet spending billions of euros each here. was in the in the emirates there is one battle tank for 2100 people in france there is one battle tank or 250000 people. the prince likes to present his arsenal in displays of power the goal is to impress governments around the world. this. is. the true face of the embassy as a prince who wants to extend his influence beyond the borders of his country he wants to become a charismatic leader in the arab muslim world they are. but

weston how is he profits from his nation's image as a tax haven and a major tourist destination. to buy has become famous for its artificial islands its luxury hotels and its tolerant lifestyle. during state visits the crown prince always puts on an impressive show with a military parade in the colors of the on it guest.

under the cloak of my identity and liberalism mohammedans he had welcomed the pope with all the pomp and ceremony that one would expect and it was the 1st time that a country on the arabian peninsula had hosted his holiness this display was of course meant to demonstrate that the u.a.e. was open to the world and all its religions and dreams none of this stops n.b.c. from really his kingdom with an iron fist. as ambitious as m.b. is that is he's always known his country is too small to play in the major league he needed an ally and he found it in saudi arabia. mohamed bin sayed so mohammed bin sons rise to power as an amazing opportunity because the use of these rulers shadd the same political goal as the u.a.e. namely an autocratic modernization.

the notion because he wants saudi life to become more liberal to reduce the role of religion in society and to modernize the country's economic infrastructure could it be. saudi arabia has a population of $30000000.00 and is completely dependent on its oil exports a resource which is diminishing year after year. the country needs to diversify and n.p.'s is ready to face the challenge. and he's a big guy he's very dynamic he walks in the room everybody stops talking. it's remember. what that would eat i know part of the at. most often adam i think that the now that. he's

a modern charismatic guy. looks women in the. shakes their hands. very direct and that's a very that's a thing that westerners. you know that all these ventures big venture capitalists and so from that way. on his trips to the united states. he's just kind of the out everybody. he's been portrayed as a hothead he's impulsive he's not very strategic going to decisions he's very childish sometimes that definitely applies to more been someone. that just 29 years of age m.b.a.'s became the world's youngest defense minister and immediately his focus turned towards the old enemy. for the saudis the existential

threat in the region is a real. neither for you see the. other place in the even though at the smaller concert here but. you could feel this of syria. in there is a very strong rivalry between iran and saudi arabia who both opposes the 2 great powers of the gulf. so what really disturbs saudi arabia is the expansionism of revolutionary she is that. they feel totally surrounded by iran who has a heavy presence in iraq lebannon syria. and of course in yemen it with the who teens. and early 2015 m.p.'s took over the reins as commander in chief of the saudi military at the

same time those who thiessen local shiite and probably ran militia seized yemen's capital sana was the. that's not the. the the crown prince 2 things to me that are planned with effectively a presence at the southern border of the saudi kingdom. come mohammed. since i'm on this when my men didn't sound money decided to intervene in yemen the idea was to signal his arrival in power by showing that under his rule saudi arabia was not a country to mess with. you cannot be a chicken or how to believe comet back at the speed of the mic i'll be i live so there can. get even. closer than a one dome i still have. not must finish the 3 girls you assigned to.

m.p.'s knew he could count on the suppose of his ally and be he said and his well equipped army to support him in this new declared war. because it will sure there be any rotty intervention in yemen allowed them to exhibit that military power on the wild stage. when the emirate is going into yemen it was a quite a quite impressive and i know it impress a lot of people that are there are like you know wow. i'm on his way and. very impressive operation maybe this won't be so bad i think that all changed very quickly. was. oh. no hello the both of their killing soldiers civilians policemen many common people

they are targeting universities many of the saudi regime is killing students. they are the terrorists. then the system it was making bombs are now taking them try and we will never surrender our house was on our no no says no. it's. the war in yemen it's going terribly wrong. a massive humanitarian crisis we have cholera in your family it's a knife. you see mixed up it's a terrible mess the saudis and their emulating allies are really bad during it it's a bit like their vietnam war. it is anti iranian obsession of the saudis is not necessarily shared by the other monarchies of the arabian peninsula the country said we don't want to get involved in the other when

the country military did is they will move to southern yemen to to help the saudis protect the southern border but they didn't get involved in the air war and putting boots on the ground in the same way that the air ati's or the saudis did. ukraine as a result guitar is considered by saudi arabia and abu dhabi as being too close to tehran . to. look at the video but so does iran share an offshore gas field in northern qatar in the persian gulf. the image that the most inevitably that requires a certain amount of cooperation with iran is going to qatar concert. border breakdown in relations with iran as it would be against its own financial interest . these disagreements over iran were added to by the tensions rising from the arab spring. in the gulf.

found itself increasingly isolated what that has done is basically carter diametrically opposed to the sea and so that is like this kind of intense regional conflict basically in these mobs. and that's that's that's. and these tensions between the 3 princes were brought to a head as a new figure entered the fray. there are economic relations between donald trump and the pro se camp we know that donald trump has a golf course in the u.a.e. . this in your view is that the united arab emirates had

a remarkable intuition that donald trump was a man with a rather basic understanding of geopolitics and that there was an opportunity for them to shape his vision of the region so many foreign policy advisers and think tanks in the united states have received money from the united arab emirates in an effort to influence the trumpet ministrations key decisions concerning the middle east. and washington and saudi lobbyists have targeted the president's entourage and one man in particular. there's a middleman between the u.s. and saudi is jarett cushnie donald trump's son in law a 30 something that's totally inexperienced in middle east in a fasm city and that he is the perfect ally for m.p.'s and n.b.c. it's really

a match made in hell. right after the inauguration so january 2000 so right after your question was put in charge of the middle east that's your portfolio. and i think the leap in this region of the traditional partners who is be in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates is in dollar they really do everything we can to strengthen those 2 pillars so the whole strategy in the middle east was was was to go far to get strong and that was absolutely it was the same exact thing that m.b.a.'s and n.b.c. wanted more than anything. so president trump decides with jared our 1st trip abroad is going to be to saudi arabia.

the saudis basically just you know open their checkbook and like you know well out of it as they spent something like $68000000.00 that was this kind of utterly grandiose looks like you know los vegas. says the donald it's a win win situation in inverted commas that they have worked out between themselves and it up with something the president didn't try to hide even showing pictures of doing the shopping some of the things that have been approved and are currently under construction and will be delivered saudi arabia very soon and that's for their protection but if you look in terms of dollars 3000000000 dollars 533000000 dollars. yes $525000000.00 in the spirit for here. the discussion at the time was look as a problem they're funding groups across the region that we don't like they have a close relationship with iran which we don't like and you don't like either what

shall we do about this trying not knowing what was going on was basically saying oh well if you can take care of it as loosely as it was and taking care of it was seen as a green light by mohammed so mahna mahna bins out at the time to take action on qatar . let his you go to the gulf crisis began a quarter past midnight on may the 24th 2017 at that exact moment an article appeared on the website of the qatari official news agency q. and a see q. and a. the article claimed that emmy had tommy mufon he had made remarks in a speech at a graduation ceremony for officer cadets that went against all acceptable diplomatic rhetoric in the gulf primitive going to go to.

the city if the article was fake it was the result of a cyber attack just came to light a few weeks later when the cia sent computer experts to doha doha why were they made because that that was supposed to be a prelude to a much bigger campaign and to steer up dissidents and in qatar and diligent allies in the america in the eye of the domestic audience in qatar but also in the eye of a global audience. men who are out in welcome to tonight's broadcast focusing on the recent quotes from the emir of qatar shake. me and then. well it was. for 2. weeks there was a constant bashing of cuts on pro saudi media. the image episode you know plus camera. has always been the problem child of the gulf. other countries in the region and the respect the rule of law and historical links that bind them are

trying to point it in the right direction i am pincus but qatar has shown its true self a source of funding for terrorist organizations. the pressure was mounting and then on june the 5th there was a complete breakdown of diplomatic and economic relations with qatar look at that. the only land border that qatar has with the arabian peninsula is with saudi arabia and then lord let it go to being close not just for individual traffic but particularly for for import and export of goods going in or out of qatar. the airspace for any aircraft going into qatar coming from qatar is closed in the u.a.e. and saudi arabia any vessel heading towards cops or coming from qatar is no longer allowed to dock in the u.a.e. . everything was done to isolate cateye or as much as possible if you look at

international law this is something that you could interpret as an act of war. when saudi arabia and the emirates announced that water i can tell you for sure that in the pentagon there were watts of fears that this was agree with the invasion that the these guys won't work. at the time trying to strongly supported saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in these accusations and. the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism. at a very high level nations came together. and spoke to me. about confronting guitar over its behavior. so we had a decision to make. do we take the easy road or do we finally take the hard work

necessary action. these statements provoke panic within the u.s. administration. it found out about them on live t.v. secretary of state rex tillerson had to intervene. son tillerson explained to trump who hasa billy hadn't realized that the united states had their largest military base of the region in qatar. at that time didn't know that airbase which is the most important air base for the for the us military in the entire region all the operations in pakistan afghanistan and against isis of loan from that he didn't know it was in qatar you actually thought it was in the u.a.e. . the us certainly couldn't start taking sides in this dispute especially not against guitar which donald trump eventually understood

. plans for an invasion was suspended but there was an embargo in place a cold war in the gulf have begun. to be out there much come out and i wish i better. i don't want. this you know which i cannot but be there because i think that's what i do a coffee shop in a property. and i see what he wants to put out it. was shipped fighter planes and bombers in such large quantities that today qatar has an air force that's totally disproportionate to the number of fighter pilots at its disposal. looks.

people stood 100 percent behind him his portrait was everywhere on the streets of doha and in people's cars this all happened in a rather a usually spontaneous manner. to december go has made him into a true national figurehead and estates and this most recent failure for abu dhabi and riyadh. to mean authentic a massive the crisis in a stronger position in the role of victim. he promised neither the embargo nor the accusations of exploiting workers would stop his country from staging the 2022 world cup. for m.p.'s and m.p.'s said this offensive against became a fiasco and the war in yemen became a quagmire. it was in this context that in october 28th seen

the jamal khashoggi affair made the headlines. m.p.'s was accused of ordering the saudi journalist to be assassinated and he became a pariah on the international stage at the g 20 you could see the crown prince was a little isolated center. it's true that everyone snubbed him to some extent that. differ magically relations are unchanged saudi arabia storefront but i think the reality is like march last year i can't imagine time in the future when m.e.'s is going to be able to come to the united states and show his face in public and people will not immediately say that's the man. who had jihad to show killed. then all of a sudden the voting there putin approached n.b.s. with a now infamous high 5 handshake. which was extremely popular in saudi arabia so did . there's

a very good relationship between putin's russia king solomon's arabia and the united arab emirates of n.b.c. . in the game of international diplomacy the princes of saudi arabia and the u.a.e. are increasingly turning towards russia and china. these 2 countries are less strict about human rights violations and war crimes this is an unprecedented move for these traditional western allies. this new generation of rulers are as powerful as they are unpredictable and threaten to further destabilize a middle east already ravaged by years of conflict.

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is d.w. news live from berlin a prime minister under pressure. from the political turmoil in the european union smallest nation as government is caught up in a murder probe suspicions are growing of a high level cover up a senior figures resign also coming.