This is an interesting and inevitable development.
A look at the players. Qatar is to Sunni Jihad what Iran is to Shiite Jihad. Saudi Arabia has been pretty bad, but Qatar is actually worse. They've had their hand in everything from 9/11 to the Arab Spring. They're big backers of the Muslim Brotherhood and they've been providing weapons and training to Islamist rebels across the region. They're also behind Al Jazeera.
The UAE was the first to break with Qatar over concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood. And things have been slowly escalating from there.
Four Arab nations cut diplomatic ties to Qatar early Monday morning, further deepening a rift among Gulf Arab nations over that country's support for Islamist groups and its relations with Iran.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Saudi Arabia also said Qatari troops would be pulled from the ongoing war in Yemen.
All the nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic. Saudi Arabia said it also would shut its land border with Qatar, effectively cutting off the country from the rest of the Arabian Peninsula.
These are fairly aggressive moves that go beyond expelling an ambassador. They are the sort of things that you do before military action takes place. And with President Trump's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar has to be wondering if the US might not be ready to turn a blind eye. Qatar had a lot of influence in the White House under Obama. But things have changed.
Even before Monday, Qatar had appeared unperturbed by the growing tensions. On May 27, Qatar's ruling emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, called Iranian President Hasan Rouhani to congratulate him on his re-election.
The call was a clear, public rebuttal of Saudi Arabia's efforts to force Qatar to fall in line against the Shiite-ruled nation, which the Sunni kingdom sees as its No. 1 enemy and a threat to regional stability.
And that's not all.
Saudi Arabia said it took the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar's "embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region" including the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom's restive eastern province of Qatif. Egypt's Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an "antagonist approach" toward Egypt and said "all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed."
The tiny island nation of Bahrain blamed Qatar's "media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain" for its decision.
Qatar's role in the Muslim Brotherhood coup in Egypt was pretty plain. As was its role in the Libyan campaign. Bahrain's positions offers an interesting twist. Qatar's ties to Sunni Jihadists have been unambiguous. But Bahrain is accusing it of ties to Shiite Jhadists. Accusing Qatar of backing an Iranian takeover effort in Bahrain is explosive. Qatar's support for Islamic terror wouldn't matter much to Muslims, but picking the wrong side in a Sunni vs Shiite spat is another matter.
Either way this is bound to be interesting.