Can the GCC still be relevant?
The ongoing Gulf rift is not the first crisis to hit the bloc, but what is the effect going to be this time around?
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is in its worst crisis ever after three of its six members cut ties with Qatar.
The emir of Kuwait was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
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He is plane-hopping around the Arabian Peninsula, hoping to mediate in what’s being called the Qatar Crisis.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE, as well as Egypt, have severed ties with Qatar, closing land and sea borders and airspace.
They say Qatar is supporting “extremist groups” in Iraq and Syria, which Qatar strongly denies.
They have also had disagreements over its alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The GCC has been an alliance since May 1981 and is made up of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman.
The ongoing crisis is not the first to hit the bloc, but what is the effect going to be this time around?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Jean-Marc Rickli – Head of Global Risk at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Ali Alkandari – Professor of contemporary Gulf history at Kuwait University
Rami Khouri – Senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut
Published On 7 Jun 2017