Impact of war felt around world, GCC Secretary General says
▶ Jasem Al Budaiwi also says Gulf states must persist in their talks with Iran and the Houthis in spite of major obstacles in their way, write Mina Al-Oraibi and Mohamad Ali Harisi in Riyadh
The impact of the war in Gaza has reverberated throughout the region and around the globe, the Secretary General of the GCC has said.
Jasem Al Budaiwi stressed the need for a ceasefire and called on Israel’s allies to push it to “calm the situation”. “What happens in Gaza doesn’t just stay in Gaza, there is a fallout all over the world,” he said. He spoke of widespread frustration at the international community’s attitude to the plight of Palestinians.
“There is no justification in any way whatsoever that allows 30,000 people to be killed in this manner and the international community is incapable of even condemning this or calling for a ceasefire,” he said. Speaking to The National in Riyadh, Mr Al Budaiwi also said Gulf states were determined to keep talks open with Iran, despite the difficulties.
Asked how the GCC should deal with Iran, Mr Al Budaiwi said: “Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. We have no choice to deal with Iran but through dialogue.”
Mr Al Budaiwi’s remarks came a year after a deal between Riyadh and Tehran was signed in Beijing, marking a detente between the two.
“We truly believe that the normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a very important element to add peace and stability in the region,” he said. Mr Al Budaiwi, a former Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, added that Yemen remained a crucial component of regional stability at a time when the Iran-backed Houthi group are launching daily attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Talks must be honest and involve the Houthis, he said.
He described the Red Sea attacks as “a major issue for everyone and something we worry about”, and said a ceasefire in Gaza was needed to end them. “The Yemenis don’t need more agony, they have enough agony, enough war,” he added.
Mr Al Budaiwi said that talks with the Yemenis, including the Houthis, continue regardless of the attacks. “We will do our best to make sure a peaceful process succeeds,” he added.
As the war in Gaza continues to bring suffering to the Palestinian people and deepens instability across the region, there is growing unease around the Arab world.
How the war ends and its long-term impact are yet to be determined, but what is clear is that the region has changed dramatically.
In an interview with The National, Jasem Al Budaiwi, Secretary General of the Gulf Co-operation Council, says the war in Gaza has not only changed the region, it has changed many international standards.
“What happens in Gaza doesn’t just stay in Gaza, there is a fallout all over the world,” he says.
Mr Al Budaiwi stresses the need for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of Ramadan, and for Israel to halt its attacks there, while he also expresses “surprise” at some of the political positions in international forums.
“There is no justification in any way that allows 30,000 people to be killed in this manner and the international community is incapable in even condemning this or calling for a ceasefire,” he says.
Co-ordination among the GCC countries on Gaza is high, although each country is taking its own position.
Within days of Israel’s strikes on Gaza after Hamas’s attack on October 7, GGC foreign ministers met in an extraordinary session.
Mr Al Budaiwi says the meeting concluded within 45 minutes as everyone was on the same page.
“One common stand, coming up with $100 million [in humanitarian aid] in 45 minutes, is an amazing achievement in politics.”
On how the war ends, Mr Al Budaiwi says: “The ceasefire must come first at the least, even if temporary, so we can work on de-escalation, allow aid to come in, treat the wounded who are in need of urgent care.”
As for the long term, “we hope for a genuine international effort to get to a transitional solution, a first phase of a ceasefire, allowing aid in, treating the Palestinians, who are hurt not only physically but mentally”.
“We need to reinstate Palestinian faith in the world, then we can talk about a twostate solution and a coming Palestinian government and elections.”
He says “it will be a long process. We first must calm the situation. That should be the message from the international community from Israel’s friends to Israel.”
While not directly naming the US, which has vetoed resolutions created to enforce a ceasefire, Mr Al Budaiwi, who has served as Kuwait’s ambassador to Washington, is clearly exasperated by the American position on Palestine.
However, he is also clear on the strength of the GCC’s ties with the US.
“There is no doubt that the six countries of the GCC have exemplary and special relations with the United States, based on mutual interests and historic ties,” he says.
As a sign of the strength of those ties, the US was the only country which the GCC held two ministerial level meetings with last year.
“We speak in all openness with the Americans. I think we agree with them on many issues, but our primary problem with them is how they deal with Israel,” says Mr Budaiwi.
“We hope they exert more efforts with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s government, to convince him to at least get to a ceasefire.
“The US has a certain leverage that it can use to pressure and convince the Israelis.”
Iran is another country whose ties with the GCC are under examination
Iran’s proxies in Yemen and Lebanon – the Houthis and Hezbollah – add to the destabilisation of the region, but Gulf countries are keen to maintain good ties with Iran.
Asked how the GCC can deal with Iran, Mr Al Budaiwi responds robustly.
“Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. We have no choice to deal with Iran but through dialogue.”
Mr Al Budaiwi’s remarks come one year after a deal between Riyadh and Tehran was signed in Beijing, marking detente between the two.
“We truly believe that the normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a very important element to add peace and stability in the region,” he says.
Mr Al Budaiwi reflects a general Gulf sentiment that is often repeated by officials.
“We know Iran is our neighbour, we know for us to live in peace and stability and for them to live in peace and stability we need to work on making sure we have this continued dialogue. But if I sit with you in a dialogue, we have to make sure we don’t interfere in each other’s business.”
He acknowledges that building trust with Iran continues to be a challenge. “We want to see each other trusting one another. Instead of just looking at the challenges, we look at the opportunities for them and for Iran. There are lots of possibilities.
“You have to walk the talk. When you say something, you have to match it with action. We hope our brothers in Iran look at us how we look at them, wanting peace and stability.”
Iran is the main supporter of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, a major concern for the GCC.
Mr Al Budaiwi says Yemen was “a very important file for the GCC”, and a peace deal is one that it seeks.
The GCC hosted Yemen talks in Ramadan two years ago, which came up with the Presidential Council of Yemen to enable a strengthened Yemeni government to negotiate a political solution with all Yemeni groups.
While Saudi Arabia continues its talks with the Houthis, Mr Al Budaiwi supports the efforts of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg.
“We know the envoy, with the help of Saudi Arabia and the sultanate of Oman, has reached some sort of an agreement that the envoy needs to work with all parts of Yemen on, but unfortunately what happens in Gaza doesn’t just stay in Gaza,” he says. He describes the attacks on Red Sea shipping as “a major issue for everyone and something we worry about”, and says a ceasefire in Gaza is needed to end them.
Mr Al Budaiwi says that political talks with Yemenis, including the Houthis, continues regardless of the attacks “and we will do our best to make sure a peaceful process succeeds”.
He expresses concern about wider instability in the region affecting the Gulf in the long term.
“Thankfully, what we have achieved as six countries in the past seven to nine decades, is great.
“Our indicators are skyrocketing, but to protect our prosperity and development we are fully aware of the need to extend a helping hand to our brothers around us, from Yemen to Iraq to Palestine, to Lebanon to Syria, to Sudan and Libya.”
Political solutions are needed in all these countries, he says, “or to de-escalate, at the very least. We hope our friends and neighbours in the region, including Iran, can be included in this.”
That goal of a shared prosperity extends to China. While the US expects its allies, including in the GCC, to remain closer to it than to Beijing, Mr Al Budaiwi says: “We stand the same distance from our allies.
“We value the relationship with the US, and at the same time, China is a very important partner for us. We see them in a positive light and all of the countries have an excellent relationship with them, from every angle.”
One of the primary drivers behind growing ties between the GCC and China is economic, with aspirations to conclude the Free Trade Agreement that has been under negotiation since 2004.
“The FTA is 19 chapters, we finished 16. Two are very close, and one we are still talking about,” he says.
Gulf countries have been working towards diversifying their economies away from oil, and one of the pillars of this transformation is concluding FTAs with major economies.
“These FTAs will play a great role in opening up our markets and other markets for our products so we can move away a little bit from the oil, which we owe a lot of our prosperity to, but it’s time to take that measure to move away from it,” he says.
The bloc signed an FTA with South Korea in December after signing an agreement with Pakistan in September. It is in talks with the EU and Britain.
Mr Al Budaiwi says he hopes that the FTA with Britain will be finalised soon, adding that signing it would “send a message of unity among us, among the GCC”.
In addition to pursuing FTAs, the six nations are focused on strengthening their bilateral economic relationships, with the goal of achieving integration.
“On every single aspect, we have reached the integration we want, even politically,” says Mr Al Budaiwi, but “economically we still have some challenges that we need to tackle.”
He says that the bloc is developing a “Khaleeji Schengen” visa and that the governments are discussing “how it looks, how much we charge, what software we use.”
The economic diversification efforts of the GCC are taking place alongside efforts to foster social change, a key aspect of which is the empowerment of women in the workforce around the region.
The interview with Mr Al Budaiwi took place at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Gulf Co-operation Council in Riyadh, ahead of a celebration of International Women’s Day, the first such public celebration of Gulf women, with the participation of senior officials and a number of notable women from the six member countries.
It is a reflection of the continued advancement of the role of women in the Gulf in public life, and a part of greater societal changes.
“I don’t see the societal change challenging our identity. On the contrary, it is strengthening our identity,” he says.
“Each country has its own way to reach that level of change, positive change, while at the same time maintaining our identity, values, religion, and beliefs.
“We want to move forward with the international community doing all these great achievements while maintaining our Emirati, Bahraini, Saudi, Qatari, Omani and Kuwaiti values.”
He says that the GCC would work with the international community “on every aspect possible to protect human rights, protect labour, save the values, fight for humanity”.
“But at the same time, we want to make sure our values, beliefs, and understandings stay intact and are not to be challenged.”
Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. We have no choice to deal with Iran but through dialogue JASEM AL BUDAIWI
GCC Secretary General