Tag: Gulf states

On the stage and behind the scenes, there seemed much more appetite for normalisation with Israel. Oman’s Foreign Minister said it quite clearly when he called on the Arab world to “come to terms with the reality that Israel is a fact of life in the region”

Some of the Israeli officials involved in the covert ties with Oman could not help but wonder why is the Sultan suddenly willing to have such a public and broadly covered visit now? The answer to that will not be found in Jerusalem.

Today's Update features two pieces suggesting there may be hopes for a different model of moving toward a two-state Israeli-Palestinian peace. It also includes an analysis of the significance of Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu's surprise visit to Oman last Friday.

A new Israeli report (February 2018) reveals a dramatic trend of expanding nuclear capabilities among Arab countries over the next few years... Dozens of nuclear reactors are in various stages of planning in the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia and even Sudan (led by the wanted war criminal, Omar al-Bashir).

The United Nations Security Council voted to renew the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year, one day before its mandate was set to expire. The UNIFIL force... is supposed to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which among things, bars all forces other than the Lebanese Army from southern Lebanon. However, Israel says UNIFIL has increasingly turned a blind eye to a massive Hezbollah presence in the area.

Israeli officials have generally stayed out of the fray since the crisis began. One exception is comments from Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman in early June that the crisis "opens many opportunities for cooperation in the war against terror" and that "the State of Israel is more than open to such cooperation.".

The foreign policy of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman - has never been a model of cooperation and unity. Even the dramatic severing of relations with Qatar and closing the aerial, territorial, and naval spheres to it - as initiated by Saudi Arabia and the UAE - is not indicative of a change.

In the Middle East "game of camps", the Qataris have been playing a dangerous game for years. They have provocatively supported the Muslim Brotherhood and actively promoted the destabilisation of existing regimes, using huge sums of money as well as the pernicious influence of Al Jazeera TV. The dramatic steps taken against them over recent weeks are thus hardly surprising, but they shed some light on the present stage in the struggle for regional hegemony.

In a region where inter-Arab politics is frequently described as a zero-sum game, Qatar suddenly finds itself on the outside looking in. Recent analysis has tended to over-focus on the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, but a closer look reveals that the camel has suffered from chronic illness for years. It was only a matter of time before its health became critical.

In a dramatic move, on June 5 Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and the Maldives announced they were all severing diplomatic relations with Qatar over its support for terrorist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, as well as for its close ties to Iran, with which it co-owns the largest natural gas field in the world.