Lobbyists cash in on dispute between Qatar, Saudi Arabia

Washington lobbyists are looking to cash in on the standoff between Qatar and a Saudi Arabia-led bloc of countries as the two sides scramble for influence with Congress and the Trump administration.

The Middle East has been increasingly volatile since Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, abruptly cut off relations with Qatar last month. The Saudi-led bloc has denounced Qatar over its alleged support for terrorist groups and ties to Iran, and it has restricted land, air and sea travel to the tiny Persian Gulf state.

As both sides began ramping up their efforts to win over Washington policymakers, the Qataris in particular found themselves outmatched. Qatar has signed lucrative contracts with an additional three Washington firms since the standoff started and is looking to hire more, according to three lobbyists familiar with the country’s efforts.

“The Qataris are playing catch-up ball,” said Patrick Theros, a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar in the Clinton administration who now heads the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. “They had a minimal lobbying presence” in Washington before the crisis.

The United States has a strong interest in seeing a resolution. It has ties to many of the countries involved, including a crucial American military base in Qatar, and the U.S. also had hoped to nurture a united Arab front against Iran and the Islamic State terrorist group. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has shuttled between the Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait this month trying to end the standoff, even as President Donald Trump has frustrated those efforts by hinting that he sides with the Saudis and their allies.

The Qataris are actively looking for lobbyists. And they’re ready to spend money.

Meanwhile, the opposing sides hope to head off any punitive measures from Washington while seeking favorable terms in any American-brokered settlement. The Qatari government appeared to spend less than $300,000 per month with four firms in the months before the Saudis and their allies cut off relations, according to Justice Department filings. Now, after hiring three more firms, they’re spending at least $1.4 million per month.

It’s less clear how much the Saudis and their allies are spending due to complexities in the filing documents. Saudi Arabia has spent nearly $250,000 a month with three of its six lead lobbying firms, disclosures showed, though the total for all its firms is likely much higher. During the last three months of 2016 and the first three months of 2017, when Saudi lobbying was unusually heavy, they spent more than $6.2 million with one firm alone. The UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have their own lobbyists in Washington.

Much of the influence campaign is being carried out by diplomats, lobbyists said. The Saudi and Qatari foreign ministers have flown to Washington in recent weeks to woo lawmakers, administration officials and reporters.

Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, said he and his team have intensified their networking, including holding more meetings with members of Congress.

Yousef Al Otaiba, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“I’m talking to reporters a lot more than I used to. I’m engaging with the administration a lot more than I used to,” said Al-Otaiba, who is among the most-plugged in members of the foreign diplomatic corps in Washington.

The Saudis had an advantage over Qatar in Washington lobbying firepower after a hiring binge last year as part of an unsuccessful campaign to kill a bill allowing families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue the kingdom. Half a dozen of those firms are now heading up the Saudi offensive in Washington, according to Michael Petruzzello, managing director of Qorvis MSLGROUP. In addition to his firm, they include: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, CGCN Group, Glover Park Group, Hogan Lovells and McKeon Group.

Qatar started out with less representation in Washington, including the lobbying firm Mercury and Portland Communications, a British public relations firm with a D.C. office.

They have since brought on former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s firm on a three-month contract worth $2.5 million, disclosures show — an eye-popping sum even by the outsized standards of foreign lobbying. Qatar also hired another Washington firm, Information Management Services, on a separate three-month contract worth more than $1.1 million, and rehired Levick, a public relations firm they’d let go earlier in the year.

Lobbyists familiar with the efforts say the Qataris are looking to add even more lobbying muscle.

“I know the Qataris are actively looking for lobbyists,” one lobbyist said. “And they’re ready to spend money.”

The Qatari Embassy wouldn’t confirm or deny that it was looking to bring on more firms. “While the blockading nations have put their resources into blocking media outlets, breaking-up families, and spreading lies about Qatar, we have opted to stay focused on working with our American allies to defeat terrorism and extremism wherever it exists,” the Embassy said in a statement.

Neither side wants its lobbyists working for the other. Qatar’s contract with Levick, signed days before the Saudis cut off relations, bars Levick from working for “any sovereign state” in the Middle East or North Africa besides Qatar. (The exception appears to be Squire Patton Boggs, which represents Qatar and the Saudi Center for Studies and Media Affairs, according to Justice Department filings. The firm declined to comment.)

Qatar insists it is on board with the U.S. goal of defeating terrorism. But there’s evidence Qatar maintains links to questionable outfits.

The Saudis, meanwhile, are considering their own shake-up, according to three lobbyists familiar with the situation. The embassy said it had no “immediate plans” to hire more lobbyists but acknowledged it is looking at ways “to expand our outreach to reach all U.S. audiences beyond the Beltway.”

The embassy said that would include traveling outside Washington and “meeting with ordinary people.”

Lobbyists have also been in touch with reporters. After Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari foreign minister, flew to Washington to meet with Tillerson last month, for instance, Qorvis/MSLGroup sent out a list of suggested questions for reporters to ask Qatari officials, such as, “When will Qatar suspend its funding for Hamas and expel its leadership from the country?”

Qatar insists it is on board with the U.S. goal of defeating terrorism. But there’s evidence Qatar maintains links to questionable outfits. In some cases, those ties have proven useful to the United States and others: The Arab country has helped facilitate peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan leaders, for instance.

Lobbyists for foreign powers are subject to extensive disclosure requirements, but lag times for the filings mean the full extent of the Saudi and Qatari campaigns won’t be clear for some time.

Congressman Lee Zeldin | Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images

One early filing shows Qatar maneuvering in Washington even before the Saudis and their allies cut ties. It shows that Vin Weber and Mike McSherry, both of Mercury, one of Qatar’s lobbying firms, met with Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa subcommittee.

They tried to persuade Zeldin to help restart the defunct congressional Qatar Caucus, but apparently weren’t successful. Days later, Weber talked with Zeldin’s deputy chief of staff about why he was “not joining the Qatar Caucus,” according to the filing. Mercury declined to comment on the meetings.

Asked why Zeldin wasn’t joining the caucus, spokeswoman Jennifer DiSiena wrote in an email: “The congressman is concerned about Qatar’s current relationship with Hamas.”

Still, American concerns about terrorism funding are not limited to Qatar. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has said since the dispute erupted that all the countries involved need to do more to crack down on terrorist financing.

“When you live in glass houses, you shouldn’t throw stones,” Corker told Defense News in June. “I’m going to take the opportunity to point out Saudi Arabia has to do a lot more as far as its financing of terrorism. The UAE needs to do a whole lot more — Qatar does too.”