Both the Bahraini and Yemeni leadership have made it quite clear - they are not going anywhere soon.

On Wednesday, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, refused to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)brokered deal to end the crisis.

The GCC deal proposes that Saleh steps down within 30 days, transferring power to his vice-president and forming a national unity government. In exchange, Saleh would get immunity from prosecution.

Yemen's opposition initially agreed to the deal but later said they would not endorse it if Saleh refuses to sign it personally, whether as ruling party leader or as president.

Activists in Yemen, and now Bahrain, have shunned the GCC as ineffective and are calling on the international community to intervene in their disputes.

The youth on Yemen's streets, the heavy weights behind the protests, accused the GCC of siding with the president against the Yemeni people.

On Saturday, the Organisational Committee of the Popular Youth Revolution called on the international community to intervene.

In Bahrain opposition activists have filed a case against the ruling Al Khalifa family at the International Crimininal Court (ICC), accusing them of crimes against humanity.

Has the GCC lost its credibility? And could its regional role backfire?

Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton, discusses with Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat; Mai Yamani, a Saudi Arabian author, anthropologist and author of Changed Identities: Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia; and David Roberts, the deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute in Qatar.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Saturday, May 7, 2011.