Inside Story

Can Tillerson get anti-Qatar quartet to end GCC crisis?

US Secretary of State visits Saudi Arabia as part of his shuttle diplomacy to help resolve the Gulf crisis.

It’s the worst dispute to hit this region since the founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981.

Now, a little more than a month into a blockade of Qatar imposed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt; the United States is taking an active diplomatic approach.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is visiting Saudi Arabia – after having made stops in Doha and Kuwait City over the last few days.

He praised Qatar after it became the first regional power to sign a memorandum of understanding with the US to fight “terror” financing.

But can he change the positions of the blockading countries?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Ali Al Kandari – Professor of Contemporary Gulf History at Kuwait University.

Fahad Al-Attiya – Qatar’s Ambassador to Russia.

David Hearst – Editor of the Middle East Eye.