GCC - News & Discussions

nrupatunga

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Thought of having a thread for GCC nations in one place.
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Oman opposes Gulf union
Oman opposes upgrading the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to a union of six nations, Muscat's foreign minister said. The union issue is on the agenda of the GCC summit to be held on Tuesday in Kuwait.

"We are against a union," Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi said at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain. The annual forum on security is also being attended by senior world officials including British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel.

"We will not prevent a union, but if it happens we will not be part of it," Alawi told AFP on the sidelines of the gathering. Kuwait and Qatar have since expressed their backing, but the UAE's position on the proposal is not known.
Oman is the most pro-iran (or at least not as anti-iran as others are) country among GCC. Anyways with or without a union, these are bunch of nations inspite of having cash couldn't depose bashar assad, have many of latest defence hardware but having them only for show piece. Good oman does not want it to be recognised as part of wahabbi gang.
 

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Mass murder in the Middle East is funded by our friends the Saudis
Everyone knows where al-Qa'ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing

For all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies since 9/11 to fight "the war on terror", they have showed astonishing restraint when it comes to pressuring Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies to turn off the financial tap that keeps the jihadists in business.

The 9/11 Commission Report which found that Osama bin Laden did not fund al-Qa'ida because from 1994 he had little money of his own but relied on his ties to wealthy Saudi individuals established during the Afghan war in the 1980s. Quoting, among other sources, a CIA analytic report dated 14 November 2002, the commission concluded that "al-Qa'ida appears to have relied on a core group of financial facilitators who raised money from a variety of donors and other fund-raisers primarily in the Gulf countries and particularly in Saudi Arabia".

A fascinating telegram on "terrorist finance" from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to US embassies, dated 30 December 2009 and released by WikiLeaks the following year. She says firmly that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide". Eight years after 9/11, when 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, Mrs Clinton reiterates in the same message that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups". Saudi Arabia was most important in sustaining these groups, but it was not quite alone since "al-Qa'ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point".
 

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GCC to form unified military command
The Gulf Cooperation Council has approved the formation a unified military command structure, announcing the move in a closing statement of a two-day annual Gulf summit held in Kuwait City on Wednesday. The bloc also agreed on the formation of a unified police force, to protect the six-member council from security threats posed to the region.

On Iran, the Gulf states hailed the Islamic Republic's "new orientation" in recent nuclear talks. :rolleyes::confused::shocked:

Oman stirred controversy earlier this week after voicing its objection to a Gulf Union of six nations, an idea that was previously suggested by regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia. Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi said Oman "will simply withdraw" from the body if the five other GCC members - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar - decide to form a union.
So is oman part of what is a purely a plain show-purpose military union(which will most probably not put its defense hardware into use) or not??
 
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Single GCC visa likely by mid-2014
GCC countries are planning to launch a European-style Schengen visa by mid-2014 to allow Gulf-based expats and foreign businessmen to move easily across the borders of the six-member bloc.

The GCC single visa will be modeled on the Schengen visa. It should be noted that citizens of the 26 EU Schengen countries and the US, UK, Japan, S. Korea and Malaysia do not require visas to enter the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. However, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait still require most nationalities to apply for visas. Those barred from a GCC country for legal reasons or those who have already been deported would not be considered for the unified visa.
 

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Areva, EDF team up with Saudis
A series of agreements aimed at supporting Saudi Arabia's nuclear energy program have been signed by France's EDF and Areva with Saudi organizations. The agreements will help develop the country's supply chain and workforce.

Two sets of agreements were signed by Areva and EDF with Saudi companies and universities during a visit to Riyadh on 30 December by French president Francois Hollande.

The French companies signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with five Saudi manufacturers: Zamil Steel, Bahra Cables, Riyadh Cables, Saudi Pumps and Descon Olayan. These MoUs aim to develop the industrial and technical skills of local companies to form a domestic supply chain.

Areva and EDF also signed agreements with four Saudi universities: King Saud University in Riyadh; Prince Mohammed bin Fahd University in Al-Khobar; and Dar Al Hekma College and Effat University, both in Jeddah. These agreements are intended to contribute to the development of Saudi Arabia's nuclear expertise.

Separately, EDF signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Global Energy Holding Company (GEHC) for the creation of a joint venture whose first task will be to carry out feasibility studies for an EPR reactor in the country. GEHC was established in 2011 to invest in the development of energy-related businesses.

EDF CEO Henri Proglio noted, "These new agreements underline EDF and Areva's commitment alongside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to enable it to successfully implement its national energy strategy and in particular to develop its future nuclear program by contributing to the development of a local network of manufacturers and by training qualified engineers."

Areva, with the support of EDF, recently launched a training program to provide Saudi companies with an understanding of the safety and quality requirements specific to the nuclear industry. The first session of this program was hosted on 17-18 December by the National Institute of Technology in Bahra, near Jeddah.

Although Saudi Arabia's nuclear program is in its infancy, the kingdom has plans to construct 16 nuclear power reactors over the next twenty years. A 2010 royal decree identified nuclear power as essential to help meet growing energy demand for both electricity generation and water desalination while reducing reliance on depleting hydrocarbon resources.

The country has bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with countries including China, Argentina, France and South Korea. Recent months have seen reactor vendors including Toshiba, Westinghouse, Exelon Nuclear Partners (ENP) and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy forge various agreements to work together on proposals for future Saudi nuclear plants.
What about their slaves, no pact with pakis. This is not fair saudis.
 

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UAE okays third and fourth Barakah Nuclear units
Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) is allowed to work on the "formwork, rebar, embedded anchor bolts, electrical conduits, steel plates and piping" for a range of buildings at Barakah 3 and 4. They include structures that will house the reactor itself as well those for the steam turbines, water intakes and auxiliary equipment.

A nuclear reactor can only be said to be under construction after the pouring of first concrete relevant to nuclear safety. To do this Enec needs to receive a construction license from regulators. It applied for this in March last year.

Two reactor units are already under construction at Barakah. For these Enec will apply for an operating licence next year. It plans to complete construction, commission and start them up in time to generate electricity in 2017 and 2018. Units 3 and 4 should follow in 2019 and 2020. The reactors are APR1400 pressurized water reactors supplied by a South Korean consortium led by Kepco.

The four Barakah units will have a capacity of 5600 MWe, but ultimately the UAE wants 20,000 MWe nuclear capacity as part of a plan to meet energy demand that has been growing at 9% per year. The country's policy documents state it must have total installed generating capacity of 40,000 MWe by 2020. At that time, with Barakah in operation, nuclear power's baseload role would see it meet about 25% of electricity demand. Renewables are expected to provide up to 7%, domestic gas about 50% and imported gas the rest.
 

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Canada wins $10 billion arms contract from saudis
Canada's defence industry has beaten out German and French competitors to win a massive contract worth at least $10 billion US to supply armoured military vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

Canada has previously sold light armoured vehicles (LAVs) like those used by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia, with more than 1,000 delivered to the Middle Eastern kingdom in the early 1990s, and 700 more in 2009.

Saudi Arabia also used Canadian-made armoured vehicles to help neighbouring Bahrain violently quash protests during the Arab Spring two years ago
Seriously how much money do these damn saudis have:scared2::mad::scared2:, literally throwing money like anything.

@SajeevJino @Haman10
today or tomorrow, israel and/or iran have to take on saudis, why not do it together today itself??
 
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Haman10

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Canada wins $10 billion arms contract from saudis


Seriously how much money do these damn saudis have:scared2::mad::scared2:, literally throwing money like anything.

@SajeevJino @Haman10
today or tomorrow, israel and/or iran have to take on saudis, why not do it together today itself??
LOL , with god given oil and licking US boots , they have all the money u can imagine !

still , they are just a mere consumer , nothing more . so i dont consider them a threat , besides they are friends with israel under the table
 
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nrupatunga

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LOL , with god given oil and licking US boots , they have all the money u can imagine !

still , they are just a mere consumer , nothing more . so i dont consider them a threat , besides they are friends with israel under the table
Mere consumer?? But they want to consume you(iran).
 

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UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recall their ambassadors from Qatar
UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said on Wednesday they were withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar because Doha had not implemented an agreement among Gulf Arab countries not to interfere in each others' internal affairs.:shocked:

Qatar said it will not withdraw its envoys from UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain despite differences in matters which it said were "external to the GCC".

The move by the three countries, conveyed in a joint statement, is unprecedented in the three-decade history of the Gulf Cooperation Council, an alliance of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Oman.

Qatar has been a maverick in the region, backing Islamist groups in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East that are viewed with suspicion or outright hostility by some fellow GCC members.

he statement said GCC members had signed an agreement on November 23 not to back "anyone threatening the security and stability of the GCC whether as groups or individuals - via direct security work or through political influence, and not to support hostile media".

GCC foreign ministers had met in Riyadh on Tuesday to try to persuade Qatar to implement the agreement, it said. Media reports described the meeting as "stormy".



"But unfortunately, these efforts did not result in Qatar's agreement to abide by these measures, which prompted the three countries to start what they saw as necessary, to protect their security and stability, by withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar starting from today, March 5 2013," the statement said.

GCC countries "have exerted massive efforts to contact Qatar on all levels to agree on a unified policy... to ensure non-interference, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any member state," the statement said.

The nations have also asked Qatar "not to support any party aiming to threaten security and stability of any GCC member," it added, citing media campaigns against them in particular.

The statement stressed that despite the commitment of Qatar's emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani to these principles in November, his country has failed to comply.
Media reports have said that Shaikh Tamim was given an ultimatum by Saudi Arabia in the November meeting in Riyadh that was facilitated by the Kuwaiti emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed. The new emir was told to change Qatar's ways and bring the country in line with the rest of the GCC with regards to regional issues. The GCC has in particular been concerned about Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, its close relations with Turkey, its opposition to the new regime in Egypt and its perceived support for Al Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Shaikh Tamim reportedly signed a pledge to comply and asked for a six month period to reorient his country, citing obstacles from remnants of the previous regime that was led by his father Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa in which the controversial prime minister and foreign minister Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani wielded enormous influence. Kuwait's efforts to resolve the two countries' differences stemmed from its reported desire to avoid a confrontation between the two sides in the GCC summit it was expected to hold the subsequent month. Shaikh Tamim was reportedly warned that relations with GCC states would deteriorate significantly if Qatar would not change its ways.

Relations between Qatar and the UAE have been rocky lately. A top UAE court on Monday sentenced Qatari national Mahmoud Al Jidah to seven years in prison followed by deportation after he was convicted with two Emiratis of raising funds for a banned local Muslim Brotherhood-linked group, Al Islah. The move was criticised by Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, which is close to the government.

The rights body said it will pursue Al Jidah's release, with its head Ali Bin Sumaikh Al Marri saying that the Abu Dhabi Federal Supreme Court "failed to implement international standards of a fair trial". He also alleged that Al Jidah's confessions were extracted "under torture".

Early in February, in a rare move for Gulf countries, the UAE announced that it had summoned Qatar's ambassador in Abu Dhabi for remarks made by controversial Egyptian-Qatari cleric Yousef Al Qaradawi. Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, expressed the UAE Government's "extreme resentment" over Al Qaradawi's statement. Speaking live on Qatari state TV from a Doha mosque, Al Qaradawi criticised the UAE for supporting the current Egyptian government. He claimed that the UAE "has always been opposed to Islamic rule".

"We have held back so that our neighbour can clearly reject such insult, extend sufficient clarifications and guarantee that such provocation and defamation will not recur," Gargash said then.

But Gen Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, at the time insisted that UAE-Qatar relations remain strong despite the spat.

Qatar was a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood led government of Mohammad Mursi that was ousted in July in a military coup led by army chief Abdul Fattah Al Sisi.
The Qatari government has also raised its neighbours' ire for failing to end its relations with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which has been deeply involved the civil war in Syria, siding with the regime of Bashar Al Assad. Early last December, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he had received an envoy from Qatar, the first contact between the two sides since divisions over the crisis in Syria severed their once strong relations.

Qatar, which used to enjoy close relations with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Turkey and Bashar Al Assad's Syria, has in recent years found itself isolated after relations with Hezbollah, Iran and Al Assad deteriorated. The GCC's decision is expected to further isolate the new emir.

Didn't know the below thing as well
September 19, 2013: Egypt returns to Qatar $2 billion (AED 7.34 billion) that the Gulf state gave in May before Islamist president Mohammad Mursi was toppled.
 

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What the Saudis Fear
As the government of Saudi Arabia does strange things and pitches fits, such as at the beginning of this year declining to take up one of the usually-coveted rotational seats on the United Nations Security Council, we tend to view Saudi motivations and concerns through a lens that distorts confrontations in the Middle East into our own preferred way of looking at such conflicts. Thus we often view the Saudis as prominent members of a "moderate" bloc of regional states that are principally in confrontation with a different bloc led by Iran. This view was augmented by misinterpretation of a leaked diplomatic cable that was taken to mean that the Saudi leadership would welcome a U.S. military attack on Iran. Actually, the Saudis would view any such warfare in their neighborhood as a calamity. Riyadh certainly does have concerns about Iran, but its usual way of dealing with those concerns has been through rapprochement with Tehran. The Saudis are once again taking steps to improve relations with the cross-Gulf neighbor.

American perceptions of Saudi apoplexy about the Syrian civil war also tend to to be viewed in the context of debate and discussion among Americans—in this case, in terms of charges that American unwillingness or inability to do anything significant about the civil war is a manifestation of U.S. "retreat" from the world. But the apoplexy isn't about American retreat, either real or imagined. Rather, the Saudi concern is different and it is simple; it is about sectarian conflict. It is seeing fellow Sunnis fight against Alawites and Shia, and it believes it has a strong stake in the Sunnis winning.

This stake in another country's sectarian conflict is related to the peculiar nature of the al-Saud family's claim to legitimacy and to political power. It is a claim based on religion, and not at all on popular sovereignty. It is not for nothing that the Saudi king calls himself the custodian of the two holy mosques. Protection of Sunni brethren is part of upholding the claim to legitimacy.

Another piece of odd Saudi behavior—a vendetta against the Muslim Brotherhood—also is rooted in matters of political legitimacy and religion. Saudi Arabia, along with its allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, recently withdrew its ambassador from fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member Qatar. The Qataris have been a thorn in the Saudis' side for several reasons, but the biggest immediate one has been Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Saudis have strongly supported the Egyptian military's coup that deposed the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi. Now the Saudis have formally designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist group—a designation that has no basis in the behavior of the Brotherhood, which foreswore violence many years ago and is the only organization on the Saudis' terrorist list that is not an armed group.

The Muslim Brotherhood evokes especially strong fear among Saudi royals not because of any moves it is making to undermine the Saudi regime directly but instead because it embodies a combination of religious commitment to Islam (on the Sunni side) and pursuit of political power through democratic means. This combination presents the greatest possible challenge to the legitimacy of the ruling Saudi family.

U.S. interests do not converge at all with the fears that are driving the Saudis. The United States has no stake in sectarian contests between Sunni and Shia, and it can only hurt itself by appearing to take sides. As for the Saudi confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood, the American proclivity for viewing Islamists dimly, combined with the image of Saudi Arabia being among the "moderates," has led Americans to overlook who in this confrontation is Islamist and democratic and who is Islamist and authoritarian.

The United States has valid realist reasons to be heavily engaged with Saudi Arabia. But it has nothing in common with the chief fears that are motivating Saudi Arabia's rulers.
 

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Saudi Seeks Stronger US-Gulf Military Cooperation
Saudi Arabia's crown prince called Wednesday for stronger military cooperation between the United States and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf whose security he said was under threat.

Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, who also holds the defense portfolio, made the remarks at a meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah between US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Hagel for his part stressed that Washington remained "committed" to the oil-rich region's security and stability.

"We meet today amid persistent threats to the region's security and stability," which "necessitate coordination in politics and defense strategies of our countries," said Prince Salman.

"The security of our countries and our people is in danger," he added.

The crown prince singled out concerns over "political crises" in some Arab states, as well as "attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction and meddling of certain states" in the internal affairs of others, in an apparent reference to Iran.

He stressed that "historic and strategic relations" between Washington and GCC countries had "contributed to cementing security and stability in the region."

Hagel also called for cooperation in dealing with security threats.

"The security challenges facing this region threaten the region as a whole, and no one nation can address them alone," he said at the end of the meeting.

"We agreed on the need for more cooperation in three areas: more integrated air and missile defense coordination; closer maritime security integration; and expanded cybersecurity cooperation," he said.

US officials have struggled to reassure Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, over an interim nuclear deal struck with Iran last year that Riyadh worries will embolden Tehran.

The GCC has also been dissatisfied with Washington's cautious approach to arming rebel forces in Syria.

Hagel said the Jeddah meeting underlined a shared commitment to "preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — and ensuring that its program is exclusively peaceful."

Despite Tehran's diplomatic engagement being a "positive development," Washington and Gulf states "continue to share "concerns about Iran's destabilizing activities throughout the region."

This includes Iran's "sponsorship of terrorism, its support for the (President Bashar al-) Assad regime in Syria, and its efforts to undermine stability in GCC member nations," he said.

"That is why we are committed to continuing to work together to reinforce GCC defenses and capabilities," he added.

On Syria, Hagel said the ministerial meeting agreed that assistance to the rebels "must be complementary," adding "it must be carefully directed to the moderate opposition."

The Pentagon said last week that Hagel aimed to "underscore US security commitments in the Middle East and to reinforce the United States' unstinting policy of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and further destabilizing the region."

After his stop in Saudi Arabia, Hagel was to head to Amman for talks on the three-year-old conflict in neighboring Jordan.
 

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Young Emiratis Signing Up for Military Service for First Time in History
Hundreds of young Emiratis started registering for military service in special recruitment centers all over the country for the first time in history Monday.

"We are making history as we join the national service as the first exemplary batch, which is a big achievement and a matter of honor for us all," one of the recruits, Ganem Al Junaibi told the Gulf News.

Registration for Emirati men is to last until July 17. Emirati women can also sign up for optional service from July 20 to July 24. Overall, some 7,000 Emiratis are to be called up for national military service by the beginning of September 2014.

National military service in the United Arab Emirates is to consist of military exercises and compulsory lectures on patriotism.

Chairman of the National Service, General Pilot Shaikh Ahmad Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, is sure the military service will help young Emiratis become responsible citizens.

"You will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. Through military discipline, our youth will gain physical strength, endurance, knowledge, and spirit," Gulf News quoted Al Nahyan as saying to the recruits.

UAE President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan approved the law introducing mandatory military service for all Emirati men aged 18-30 last month.

Emirati men who have finished secondary school are to undergo military training for nine months, while others are to serve for two years. National service for women is optional, and first they have to receive written permission from their parents or guardians.

Emirati men that fail to sign up for the service before they are 29 are to face a jail term of up to one year and a fine.
 

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Can Qatar, Saudi Arabia ease tensions at Gulf Cooperation Council?
It's the gravest diplomatic crisis the Gulf Cooperation Council has ever faced -- but as leaders from the six-member Arab alliance prepare to meet in Jeddah, are things about to get even worse?

The root of the current problem? Qatar simply will not do as it's told by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have spent months trying to force the energy-rich nation to fundamentally alter its foreign policy. Bahrain, the UAE and the Saudis withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar in March, and have kept up the pressure ever since.

Of course, tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar are nothing new. Qatar has striven since the late 1980s to escape the Saudi political orbit by vigorously pursuing its own independent foreign policy -- regardless of the displeasure it caused in Riyadh.

The Saudis, for their part, have never liked this rejection of its leadership from an uppity small country like Qatar that it sees as barely more than an appendage of its own state. But for all the pressure Saudi Arabia exerted on Qatar -- including withdrawing its ambassador from Doha from 2002-2008 -- it could not put the Qatari genie back in the bottle. A modus vivendi was reached in 2008, but the current crisis seems to mark another attempt to put Qatar in its place.

Among a variety of modern-day issues, the central concern animating this round of difficulties is Qatar's support for various groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood -- the long-suppressed pan-regional Islamist movement that swept to power in the Egyptian elections of 2012 before being deposed by the military a year later.

The Saudis are deeply troubled by the practical and rhetorical threats the group poses in the region. And although a Brotherhood-inspired revolution seems deeply unlikely in the UAE, this is what its authorities fear and the reason they have sentenced to jail dozens of people in the last 18 months. In March 2014 both states banned the group and labelled it a terrorist organization.

Qatar has made some concessions. In mid-August, reports emerged that Qatar has considered ending the naturalization of nationals from other GCC countries -- Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait -- in answer to their criticism of the practice. And it beggars belief to think that Qatar has not made other concessions in private, given the seriousness of the break in regional relations between the countries. Yet still Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to try to force Qatar to accept and conform to their particular world-view.

Up to this point, this current disagreement has had a negligible impact on the GCC -- and the fact that the Council cannot provide a united front on the Gaza or ISIS crises is nothing new for the argumentative and perennially-divided group.

Demoting Qatar somehow from the GCC, one of the potential punishments for the recalcitrant state, would merely codify the ineffectiveness of the GCC, not create it. Furthermore, punishing Doha would adversely affect on-going efforts to promote "jointness" among the GCC militaries in areas like ballistic missile defence. And if Qataris were to need new visas to enter other GCC countries, this would foster a logistical nightmare and increase the already bitter intra-GCC tensions felt by people.

If things got worse at the GCC, Qatar would double-down on its relations with the likes of Turkey, Iran, and the remaining Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the region, and it would reinforce its relations to its closest international allies: the US, the UK, France, Japan, and South Korea.

So what could the Saudis do to try to bring Doha into line? Any closure of the Qatari-Saudi border would be deeply harmful for Qatar given the importance of the route for trade. Around 80% of dairy imports, 30% of stone and cement imports, and 92% of aluminium imports come across the land border, according to the Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics in Qatar. If the Qatari Government were to react to this (even though they have taken the moral high ground by doing nothing so far), they could curtail its gas supply to the UAE (and Oman), which is crucial given the surging demand for natural gas in the Emirates.

While closing the border would generally be seen as an overreaction by Saudi Arabia, so too was removing its ambassador from Qatar, not to mention its rejection of the U.N. Security Council seat it won in October 2013 after years of lobbying and training for the role.

Some kind of escalation looks likely, barring a last minute reprieve. Saudi Arabia and the UAE appear to want a public sign of contrition from Qatar -- something that the new Emir of Qatar cannot give.

Not only can the Emir not overturn decades of Qatari policy that has sporadically supported groups like the Brotherhood, but barely a year into his leadership, he cannot capitulate to such naked regional pressure. Vociferous and patriotic public pressure in Qatar alone precludes that. And as the on-going Iranian-American nuclear talks have lowered tensions in the region, so too have the talks diminished the only real factor -- the threat of a nuclear Iran -- forcing any kind of cohesion from the GCC.

The GCC does face a serious political crisis, but though this may concern the countries involved, the tiff will likely pass mostly unnoticed by the rest of the region -- and the oil, the gas, the investment, the imports, and the money going to a wide variety of groups around the Middle East will continue to flow from all states.
 

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Saudi 'Golden Boy' Rises to Power as King Anoints New Generation
It's taken less than four months for Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to emerge as one of the most powerful men in Saudi Arabia, just as the world's top oil exporter sharpens its regional rivalry with Iran.

King Salman appointed his son, currently defense minister, as deputy crown prince and put him second in line to the throne, the royal court said on Wednesday. The monarch also named Muhammad Bin Nayef to crown prince after Prince Muqrin, the king's brother, asked to step down.

"The son seems to be the golden boy," said Crispin Hawes, managing director of research firm Teneo Intelligence in London. "His rise in power is exceptional undoubtedly, but this is an exceptional period in Saudi history."

Saudi Arabia is heading a bombing campaign against Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen it says are backed by Iran while adopting a tougher stance on confronting Islamic State extremists. The appointments put power in the hands of a younger generation of princes who will have to prevent any spillover across the country's borders as they develop new policies to manage the Saudi role in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

"They could serve as an indication of a new Saudi strategy," Ibrahim Sharqieh Frehat, a conflict resolution professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said by e-mail. "Escalation, whether in Yemen or Syria, could be a main feature of the kingdom's new regional strategy."

Generation Gap


King Salman made substantial changes to the government since ascending to the throne in January following the death of King Abdullah. He set up committees to oversee security, political affairs and economic development, removed senior princes and changed provincial governors.

The emergence of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is believed to be in his 30s, from obscurity to a major decision maker in royal palaces in the Arab world's biggest economy sped up once his father took over. In a series of decrees at the time, Salman named him defense minister, head of the royal court and a new economic affairs council.

"Given that the overwhelming majority of Saudis are under the age of 30, there appears to have been an awareness that there was a significant generational gap between the senior leadership and the Saudi population at large," said Fahad Nazer, a political analyst at JTG Inc. in Virginia. "Princes Mohammed Bin Salman and even Mohammed Bin Naif are the leadership's means to bridge this gap."

Law Degree


Before gaining his three jobs, Mohammed bin Salman wasn't well known outside Saudi Arabia. His previous experience of government involved running his father's court when he was crown prince and defense minister, according to the website of the Saudi Embassy in Washington. While his age is unknown, he received a law degree from King Saud University, it said.

The prince "is more than capable and qualified to take on heavy responsibilities" in his new role, the royal court said. This is "evident to everyone through his work and his fulfillment of all the tasks he was entrusted with," it said.

His appointment was supported by the majority of the allegiance council, according to the decree. King Salman called for pledges of allegiance to the crown prince and the deputy crown prince, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

That's not to say there won't be some dissent, even in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.

Rarely Seen

"It's almost unprecedented for a Saudi King to put his son directly in the line of succession, since the crown has been passed among half-brothers for the past seven decades," said Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow at London-based Chatham House. The changes to the court "probably will lead to resentments and rivalries, though these are never transparent to outsiders," she said by e-mail.

King Salman also replaced Prince Saud al-Faisal, one of the world's longest-serving foreign ministers, with Adel Al-Jubeir, who is the country's ambassador to the U.S.

The foreign ministry has been "a bastion" for King Faisal's sons and "that no longer is the case," Toby Matthiesen, research fellow at University of Cambridge and author of "The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism," said by phone. "That was one of the fixtures of Saudi politics."

As the new generation of princes rise to power, Saudi Arabia has abandoned a tradition of cautious cash-backed diplomacy with an activist policy. The kingdom started using its armed forces last month to defend its perceived interests in Yemen against Iran, and has built a predominately Sunni-Muslim coalition to support its efforts.

Like a King

The Yemen violence has mobilized public support for the new Saudi monarch. It's being run by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Mohammed bin Salman, who's hailed as the "defender" of the nation in a popular patriotic song. "You have the air of kings when you speak," the singer tells him.

"This is a more blatant move by King Salman to favor his part of the royal gene pool than was his earlier reshuffle," said Paul Pillar, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington and a former U.S. intelligence officer for the Middle East. "Questions are bound to be raised about how much Mohammed bin Salman had influence over his father in getting these latest moves made."
 

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