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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsQatar is Spending Billions to Destroy Syria
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86e3f28e-be3a-11e2-bb35-00144feab7de.htmlQatar bankrolls Syrian revolt with cash and arms
By Roula Khalaf and Abigail Fielding Smith
How Qatar seized control of the Syrian revolution
The gas-rich state of Qatar has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion in Syria, far exceeding any other government, but is now being nudged aside by Saudi Arabia as the prime source of arms to rebels. The cost of Qatars intervention, its latest push to back an Arab revolt, amounts to a fraction of its international investment portfolio. But its financial support for the revolution that has turned into a vicious civil war dramatically overshadows western backing for the opposition.
In dozens of interviews with the Financial Times conducted in recent weeks, rebel leaders both abroad and within Syria as well as regional and western officials detailed Qatars role in the Syrian conflict, a source of mounting controversy. The small state with a gargantuan appetite is the biggest donor to the political opposition, providing generous refugee packages to defectors (one estimate puts it at $50,000 a year for a defector and his family) and has provided vast amounts of humanitarian support.
In September, many rebels in Syrias Aleppo province received a one-off payment of $150 courtesy of Qatar. Sources close to the Qatari government say total spending has reached as much as $3bn, while rebel and diplomatic sources put the figure at $1bn at most.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms transfers, Qatar has sent the most weapons deliveries to Syria, with more than 70 military cargo flights into neighbouring Turkey between April 2012 and March this year.
<more at link>
I wonder how the Qataris would like a taste of their own medicine. Oh, yeah, and long live the Emir!
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Qatar is Spending Billions to Destroy Syria (Original Post)
Comrade Grumpy
May 2013
OP
What did those lousy French Paymasters get out of backing those American Jihadists back in 1776?
Agnosticsherbet
May 2013
#2
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)1. Jihadi job openings in Syria! Contact your Qatari paymaster for details.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)2. What did those lousy French Paymasters get out of backing those American Jihadists back in 1776?
I'm am sure they had only evil intentions.
ZRT2209
(1,357 posts)3. Assad is a monster. No sympathy for him.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)4. How about for the people of Syria?
100,000 + dead, including 41,000 Alawites (Assad probably didn't kill them).
4 million internal refugees.
1.5 million external refugees.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)5. One day it will bite them.... /nt