Secretary General of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdul Latif bin Rashid al-Zayani is reportedly going to visit Doha to invite Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to attend the next summit of the regional grouping in Dammam city in Saudi Arabia this month.
The Arabic language Al Aan online newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, reported that preparatory meetings for the upcoming summit were to take place in Oman, where GCC foreign ministers would meet to provide a calm atmosphere to help the success of the summit.
The report said Kuwait had worked hard to guarantee the participation of Qatar in the summit, adding that “its efforts have succeeded.”
Last month, Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah confirmed that all six GCC countries would be attending the annual summit of the council, which is expected to open on December 7.
Jarallah said the summit could present a “hope to resolve the [Persian] Gulf crisis and solve the differences.”
The report came as a shock since Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, has been involved in a diplomatic and trade boycott against Qatar for a year and a half.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 last year, after officially accusing it of “sponsoring terrorism.”
The administration of the Saudi-backed and former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties with Doha. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations as well.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry later announced that the decision to cut diplomatic ties was unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions.
On June 9, 2017, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha.
Later that month, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera television network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha.
The document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain also asked Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.
Qatar rejected the demands as “unreasonable.”
