The Mouse that Roared: how Qatar is helping shape the Middle East

Ask most people to point out Qatar on a map and they’d be hard pushed to find a place that has escalated in international news in a matter of weeks. And say what you like about Donald Trump, but who else gets gifted a $400million jet as a replacement for Air Force One because, and we quote, ‘Boeing were very late with the plane’. For those that might have missed it, President Trump is currently on a whistle stop tour of the Middle East, brokering arms and tech deals worth millions of dollars and lifting sanctions on Syria after a meeting in Damascus with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda commander. There’s even talk of Syria getting their own Trump tower, so they too can look like a rundown boardwalk in Atlantic City. But this is serious. Business and political protocols overturned; human rights records trodden on. Israel and China looking askance as the US buddies up to the Middle East. In this latest episode we speak to Majed Al-Ansari—Spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry and Adviser to the Prime Minister to find out what role Qatar is playing as it sits on this axis of power, conflict and wealth and promises to become a point of navigation between East and West?  Follow us on Twitter, Tiktok and Instagram @apocalypsenowpod, and you can get in touch via email at apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com  Take our show survey here: https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=18 Presenter:  David PatrikarakosProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Alex GrahamProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Bella Soames  A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Look around you, if you can’t see the flames, you can certainly smell the smoke. They say it’s darkest before dawn, but what if dawn or help isn’t coming? January 6th 2021’s attack on the Capitol felt like a fever dream at the time, now a ghoulish forewarning of what was to come. Current American policy,, has sent seismic shockwaves throughout the world. You only have to glance at the TV to see a grim-faced Trump, holding yet another executive order, or a vice president in a very public, televised spat with a world leader. Tariffs are in place, a US trade war is underway, while the said same vice president is undermining British fighting forces in an administration that’s cosying up to Putin’s war machine while pausing military aid to Ukraine. No wonder it’s so easy to forget the rise of the far right with our European neighbours. Or that Israel’s prime minister has threatened Hamas with “consequences you can’t imagine” if the Palestinian group does not release the remaining hostages held in Gaza. That sort of language barely registers now, let alone shocks anyone. In Syria, the country’s new leader faces a power struggle as the country’s fragile alliances – born after the fall of Assad – begin to fray and rival factions vie for a seat at the table. In Serbia, the opening day of the spring Parliament saw MPs light flares and discharge teargas, before scuffling with security guards. PMQs is positively sedate in comparison. But this is serious. How did we get here? To help us answer that question and more is David Patrikarakos, best selling author and the Daily Mail’s Special Correspondent, and a host of guests who have stared into the abyss or been on the frontline of the geopolitical world as it threatens to spin off its axis. Each episode, we’ll go on the ground to try and understand what forces and adversity each territory faces and how that might eventually, almost inexorably, impact us all. One world used to be a term of hope and defiance, now it simply sounds like the first domino falling… To get in touch, email: apocalpysenowpod@dailymail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.