Matt Bevan

Their refusal to just sit there and be rich may have made Saudi Arabia grumpy, but what was Saudi Arabia going to do about it?

Qatar had made itself too important.

The strategy was all working very well until around May 2017, when there were hints that the era of rational strategy may be coming to an end.

The new US President Donald Trump was invited to the Saudi capital Riyadh to dance with swords and join the Saudi King Salman in laying his hands upon a glowing orb.

It was a surprising destination for Trump's first foreign trip as president.

Before he left, the Saudis agreed to a massive trade and weapons deal.

Around $147 billion in US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and $270 billion in other trade.

Two weeks after Trump's visit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an extraordinary military operation

against Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain imposed an aggressive blockade on Qatar.

Land, air and sea routes in and out of Qatar were blocked.

The four blockade countries allege Qatar used its wealth to fund extremist groups linked to Iran.

They demanded that Qatar decrease their diplomatic and military engagement with Iran and Turkey.

And they kick terrorist groups out of their country.

And the closure of its government-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The US military and state department were shocked.

The US has 10,000 troops at a critical air base in Qatar.

American diplomats rushed to stop any fallout.

While the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations had seen Qatar as an ally, this time around the vibe from the White House was very different.

The US president even took credit for the crackdown on Qatar, tweeting, perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism.