Dubai: People in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are holding their breath as the deadline for ending the worst diplomatic crisis within the alliance is inexorably nearing.

A final and crucial report by an ad hoc committee set up to monitor the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement aiming at ending the diplomatic row between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE on one side and Qatar on the other should be ready by Wednesday evening.

Should the report say that there were failures to implement the accord, the ambassadors that Manama, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi pulled out of Doha would not be reinstated and new measures should be expected to be taken against Qatar.

One day before the deadline looms exceptionally large, Gulf diplomats told London-based pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat that there were no signs the crisis with Qatar was inching towards a solution.

“The crisis with Qatar is still at a standstill, despite the approaching end of the one-week deadline announced last week to make sure about Qatar’s commitment to implementing the Riyadh Agreement,” the sources, described as “high-level”, said. “The facts on the ground do not indicate that Qatar is respecting its commitments to the GCC countries.”

The sources referred to the recent statement issued by the International Union of Muslim Scholars, headed by the Doha-based Yousuf Al Qaradawi, in which it referred to the security action against Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt as “a massacre, butchery and a holocaust carried by coup leaders and their various powers and his followers.”

According to the sources, the statement indicated “Doha’s inability to deal with forces in Qatar seeking to undermine stability in Egypt, particularly since it was issued one day after the latest commitment by Qatar at the meeting of the GCC foreign ministers in Jeddah last Wednesday.”

However, the sources added that Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were hopeful that Doha would fulfil its commitments and pledges “be it on the last day of the grace period.”

On Sunday, Qatar’s foreign minister told Al Sharq Al Awsat that he could not comment on the one-week deadline, saying that he only wished the Gulf well.

The unprecedented crisis erupted within the GCC, comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, last year amid accusations that Doha was pursuing a policy that differed from the stances of the other member countries.

In November, an accord was reached to have Qatar change its policies and bring them more in line with those of its fellow members, regarding internal issues and the situation in Egypt, a close GCC ally.

However, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE on March 5 said that Qatar did not comply with the accord and pulled their ambassadors from Doha, citing grievances that included interference in their domestic affairs and supporting groups that were intent on undermining stability and security in the Gulf.

Qatar rejected the charges and said that it was fully committed to the principles and objectives of the GCC, set up in 1981.

A new accord, achieved mainly thanks to the mediation of the Kuwaiti Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, was reached in Riyadh on April 17.

The GCC countries pledged to honour the Riyadh Agreement and a committee made up of representatives from the six member countries was set up to follow up on its implementation.

The works of the committee remained mostly secret and no information about them has been leaked. However, statements by Gulf officials and media reports offered contrasting assessments about the first reports.

While some talked about an imminent breakthrough in the diplomatic crisis, others said that the divergences were too wide to overcome easily.

Saudi Arabia insisted that the ambassadors would not be reinstated until Qatar fully complied with the Riyadh Agreement.

Bahrain on two occasions issued statements calling for an end to the naturalisation of some its well-established Arab families by Qatar authorities.

On Wednesday, the GCC foreign ministers meeting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah said that they looked forward to the full implementation of the agreement within one week.

It was the first time since April that a deadline was announced publicly for reaching an accord.

The diplomatically worded statement by the GCC Secretary General Abdul Lateef Al Zayani at the end of the meeting attended by all GCC foreign ministers was interpreted as an ultimatum to Qatar.