Arabs reach deals on closer ties, even though summit cut

KUWAIT CITY — A planned two-day summit of Gulf Arab countries fell apart within hours of starting Tuesday over the ongoing boycott of Qatar, underscoring the difficulty of ending the crisis and suggesting that unifying the bloc of U.S. allies is slipping further from reach.

Even before Kuwait’s 88-yearold emir began the summit of the Gulf Co-operation Council, the United Arab Emirates announced it formed a new partnership with Saudi Arabia to co-ordinate “all military, political, economic, trade and cultural fields,” the basic goal of the GCC.

Abu Dhabi and Riyadh already enjoy close ties and previously signed a similar agreement last year, suggesting the latest announcement was meant to scuttle any possible reconciliation in Kuwait City. It also highlighted the inherent weakness of the sixnation GCC already exposed by the months-long dispute between half of its members and Qatar.

“The GCC has been successful at, in essence, boring things that do not make it to public consciousness — hence successes in areas of economic harmonization,” said David B. Roberts, an assistant professor at King’s College London. “But whenever an issue is controversial, political or actually important, the organization typically fails.”

The GCC, composed of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, formed in 1981, in part as a counterbalance to Shiite power Iran. It’s no stranger to disputes among its members, especially during the mid-1990s.

In the time since, the group had grown more clubby, buoyed by rising oil and energy prices. It made visa-free travel arrangements among its members and pushed toward greater economic co-operation.

But a drop in oil prices, the 2011 Arab Spring and its aftermath, and other political manoeuvres led to the Qatar diplomatic crisis.

The dispute began in June, following what Qatar described as a hack of its state-run news agency and the circulation of incendiary comments attributed to its ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Soon after, GCC members Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE closed off their airspace and seaports to Qatar, as well as the small peninsular nation’s sole land border with Saudi Arabia.

The boycott initially riled Doha, but Qatar soon replaced food products with those flown in from Turkey and Iran.

However, Qatar’s foreign reserves have dropped by some $10 billion — a fifth of their value — since the dispute began. Those reserves are crucial in supporting the nation’s riyal, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, as well as funding the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup that Doha will host.

The boycotting nations allege Qatar funds extremist groups and has too-cozy ties to Iran. Qatar has long denied funding extremists, but Doha shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran that gives its citizens the highest per-capita income in the world. It restored diplomatic relations with Iran after the crisis, marking a setback for Saudi Arabia, which views Tehran as its main regional rival.

A similar dispute involving Qatar erupted in 2014. But this time positions have hardened against Qatar, whose support for Islamist opposition groups has angered the Arab nations now boycotting it. The UAE in particular views Islamists as a threat to hereditary rule in its federation of seven sheikhdoms. Egypt, angered by Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the nation’s deposed President Mohammed Morsi, is also boycotting Doha. The U.S. has some 10,000 troops stationed at Qatar’s sprawling al-Udeid Air Base as part of its campaign against the Islamic State group and the war in Afghanistan.

Before the start of Tuesday’s summit, the Emirati Foreign Ministry said the new “joint cooperation committee” with Saudi Arabia was approved by the UAE’s ruler and president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayhan.