News / Interviews

Bin Salman policies injurious to unity among GCC members: Analyst

Sunday, 09 December 2018 3:09 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 09 December 2018 7:21 PM ]

The policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are harmful to unity among the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council’s member states, says a commentator.

“It is clear that Mohammed bin Salman has destroyed everything his predecessors have done, including the unity of the six members of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council. Last year they had boycotted Qatar, they waged a war on Qatar of course after waging a war on Yemen, and an earlier war on Bahrain and so this Saudi regime knows nothing but wars and conflicts and it only sows the seeds of differences and disagreements among the Arabs, among the Muslims, including the members of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council,” Saeed Shahabi told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

“So this time the GCC summit is going to be another failure to be added to the list of failures of the Saudi policies and we know the GCC is the flagship of the foreign policy, of the regional policy of Riyadh but they have lost the opportunity to make it into a viable alliance that could really help the Saudi foreign policy.”

The Saudi capital, Riyadh, is hosting the annual GCC summit amid diplomatic tensions between Qatar and some Persian Gulf Arab states.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, 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 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.