To Arab falconers, the houbara bustard is the king of game birds. In late November 2015, a large group of Qatari falcon hunters headed to the southern desert of Iraq looking for these birds. The group, according to The New York Times, was made up of several dozen people, including servants, and was led by nine members of Qatar’s ruling family, the Al Thani, one of the wealthiest dynasties on earth. They were kidnapped. Sixteen months later, they were freed. The Qataris, according to The Times, paid vast sums to terrorists on both sides of the Middle East’s conflict, which ultimately fueled the region’s civil wars. In total, the Qataris ended up paying over $360 million, but cash was the least important aspect of the deal. In order to get their hostages back, Qatar had to negotiate a “tightly choreographed population exchange in Syria.” They did this using the rebel militias to forcibly uproot every resident of four strategically located towns. The transfers ended up advancing Tehran’s larger goal of transforming Syria, and along with it, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, into satellite states that will help Iran have control across the region.
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