GCC to review Riyadh Agreement

Arab Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Dr Abdullatif Al-Zayani said GCC Foreign Ministers will review, during their meeting in Jeddah next Saturday, the final report of the committee which follows up from the Riyadh Agreement, which aims to settle the dispute with Qatar.

The Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported Al-Zayani as saying: “The committee submitted its final report to the GCC Foreign Ministers who are scheduled to discuss it on Saturday during their meeting in Riyadh.”

Al-Zayani pointed out that the foreign ministers “will discuss the GCC joint action in various fields as well as Arab and regional developments including the recent security developments in Yemen.”

Earlier in the day, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani received the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the head of General Intelligence, Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz and Interior Minister, Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz.

The Qatar News Agency reported that the meeting discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to enhance them as well as the GCC joint action. This is the first Saudi delegation at this level to visit Doha since Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar in March.

The three countries accused Doha of failure to implement the Riyadh Agreement which insists on non-interference in the internal affairs of any Gulf state, either directly or indirectly or support for any foreign individual or organisation which threatens the GCC countries’ security and stability either through direct security work or by trying to influence the political course or by supporting hostile media.

Observers believe the dispute emerged when Qatar supported Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi and criticised his ouster at a time when the other six Gulf States supported it.