Chris Stephen: Resignation at Al-Jazeera turns spotlight on the Arab world’s mouse that roared

THE shock resignation this week of Wadah Khanfar, the highly-acclaimed head of Qatar television network Al Jazeera, has focused attention on Qatar’s pivotal role in Libya’s revolution – and on what the emir gets in return.

Libyan rebels did the fighting, and Nato the bombing, but it has been Doha that has done the heavy lifting in the six-month war.

It began when Qatar became first Arab state to grant the National Transitional Council (NTC) the diplomatic recognition it craved. This was combined with an unusually forthright swipe by Qatar’s emir at the rest of the Arab League states for failing to do likewise.

When Nato needed to broaden the coalition in its controversial bombing campaign, Doha provided it, despatching Mirage fighter jets to join the no-fly zone patrols.

Speculation about the emir’s motives has been going as long as his largesse, with Doha itself silent on its motives.

Certainly it is not about the money: Libya has large reserves of oil and gas, but Qatar’s reserves are bigger.

Security seems to form a part of the emir’s thinking: Qatar may be rich, but it is also tiny, sandwiched in the Persian Gulf between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Instead of hiding itself away, Qatar appears some time ago to have decided that security works best with a roar than a whisper.

Al Jazeera, a satellite TV station started in 1996, revolutionised not just Arabic broadcasting but the Arab world itself. In the case of Libya, it was Al Jazeera coverage of revolts in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia that helped convince Libyans to launch their revolution.

Which brings us back to the shock resignation of Mr Khanfar. Why he decided that his face no longer fitted, in what should be his hour of triumph, can only be guessed at, but the station had recently begun stepping on toes in Libya, through promotion of an exiled Libyan Islamicist, Ali Salibi.

He has been screened by the station taking swipes at NTC prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, accusing him of lacking democratic credentials. This, in turn, has focused attention on the battle for power between Islamicists and pragmatists which, say diplomats, weakens the NTC.

Did Al Jazeera go too far? Or rather, did the emir worry that it risked taking sides in the post-revolutionary politicking?

Only time will tell. Or rather, Doha’s coverage will tell.