Qatar Rift Overshadows Riyadh Summit as Emir Stays Away

Qatar sent its state minister for foreign affairs to the annual one-day summit, which was overshadowed by the economic and diplomatic boycott of Doha since mid-2017 by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt over allegations Doha supports terrorism, which Qatar denies.

“Qatar’s emir should have accepted the fair demands (of the boycotting states) and attended the summit,” Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in a tweet.

In response, Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Rumaihi, director of the information office at Qatar’s foreign ministry, said, “Qatar can make its own decisions and had attended (last year’s) Kuwait summit while the leaders of the boycotting countries did not.”

He later slammed the final communique for not addressing the boycott, which Qatar says aims to curtail its sovereignty.

The (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council’s summit of six member states was held as Riyadh faces international pressure over the Oct 2. murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman opened the gathering, saying, “This requires all of us to maintain our countries’ gains and to work with our partners to preserve security and stability in the region and the world”.

The leaders sat around a table in awkward silence at the close before a bland final communique was read out, stressing the importance of maintaining (P)GCC unity in the face of threats to regional stability and to meet economic challenges.

The UAE will host the next summit in 2019.

Doha last week abruptly announced it was exiting the oil exporters’ group OPEC after 57 years to focus on gas, in an apparent swipe at the bloc’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reiterated in a press conference after the summit that Doha must meet the boycotting states’ demands and that the dispute would not affect military cooperation.

Kuwait’s ties with Riyadh are also strained over control of shared oilfields in the so-called Neutral Zone, further weakening unity of the (P)GCC which was set up in 1980.

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