From a US perspective, “it is hard to make the case that the Qataris are uniquely problematic,” Steven A. Cook writes in Salon, suggesting that all of the other US allies in the region are also “lousy.” Cook takes the hammer to Egypt and quotes former Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who once said the US-Egypt relationship is like a “mature marriage.” He notes “no doubt the Qataris have undeniably poor judgment when it comes to their support for the Muslim Brotherhood and especially Hamas … Al Jazeera is pretty terrible — but then, so is Fox News. The Qataris regard Iran as a problem to be managed rather than rolled back. That is likely a misjudgment … It seems that Qatar’s real crime, then, is to resist the regional consensus forged by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the United States under Trump.”

…Separately, Al-Monitor’s Ayah Aman suggests that “Cairo has achieved great political and diplomatic progress by taking part in the Gulf’s decision against Qatar. It found a decisive response to Qatar’s practices, which the Egyptian regime has always regarded as a direct threat to its national security.” Qatar was “a longstanding thorn” in Egypt’s side, Ramadan Al Sherbini writes in Gulf News.