The 40th round of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit is being held in Saudi Arabia today, with the two leaders not attending.
While today’s meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Saudi city of Al-Awla is said to be a reconciliation meeting between Qatar and the four Arab states, the leaders of the two member states of the council have announced their absence from the meeting.
Referring to the absence of the Sultan of Oman and the King of Bahrain at the summit, the newspaper Al-Yawm analyzed the reasons and possible consequences of the summit.
The newspaper wrote that the absence of the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, on the one hand, and the reduction of the possibility of the participation of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the unclear composition of the Emirati delegation participating in the summit, all indicate that if reconciliation happen it will happen only between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as Arab diplomatic sources have confirmed the participation of the Emir of Qatar in the summit.
The newspaper quoted some Arab diplomatic sources in the Persian Gulf as saying that the King of Bahrain would not attend the summit and that “Bahman Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad” would chair the Bahraini delegation at the summit.
The sources said that the absence of the King of Bahrain means that the country is dissatisfied with the way it is reconciled with Qatar, and he prefers to refrain from participating in the summit and remain in the strongholds of Egypt and the UAE as two important countries in the camp of Qatar besiegers.
Kuwait announced on Monday night (last night) that Saudi Arabia will open its land and airspace to Qatar, but the agreement does not include the reopening of the UAE and Bahrain airspace to Qatar.