A nation must think before it acts.
For more than a year, Saudi Arabia and its allies—especially the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, collectively referred to as the Quartet—have led a relentless, and seemingly counterproductive campaign against Qatar in a feckless attempt to bully and intimidate Doha. In addition to a blockade, the Saudis are allegedly moving forward with a plan to dig a canal on their border to turn Qatar into an island.
Saudi Arabia and its Quartet allies have taken umbrage with Qatar’s independent foreign policy, which is really just code for Doha failing to acquiesce completely to Saudi demands while reflexively accepting the Kingdom’s pursuit of regional hegemony. The tensions have been building for years.