Manama: The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will hold a meeting on Monday in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss progress on the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement to help ease tension between member countries.
The assessment talks will be on the sidelines of the regular meeting of the GCC foreign ministers, the 131st to be held since the establishment of the Council in 1981.
Kuwait’s foreign ministry undersecretary Khalid Al Jarallah whose country is the current GCC chair has expressed optimism about the outcome of the meeting.
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE on March 5 in an unprecedented move pulled out their ambassadors from Qatar to protest against what they called Doha’s lack of commitment to the GCC principle of not interfering in each other’s internal affairs.
An agreement was reached in Riyadh on April 17 and Qatar pledged to honour its clauses, prompting the GCC to set up a committee to monitor the implementation.
The meeting on Monday will be the fourth by the GCC ministers to review the committee’s reports.
Although no details have transpired from the committee discussions, officials mainly in Oman, Kuwait and Qatar insist that progress has been made and that the spat is over.
However, other reports say that the situation is much more intricate than expected, which explains the non-reinstatement of the ambassadors almost three months after they were recalled and one and a half month after the Riyadh agreement was announced.
The GCC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
