View: Despite Gulf Crisis over Qatar, GCC Pushes Ahead

The failure of the recent Gulf Cooperation Council 2017 summit to resolve the six-month long crisis that pits Qatar against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain obscured a little-known outcome of the meeting—that the council at least agreed on several mechanisms to move forward. In the end, the summit only took place on the condition that the crisis was not on the agenda, which was how the Kuwaiti hosts managed to convene it in the first place.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, along with the heads of state of Bahrain and the UAE, decided at the last minute not to attend the Dec. 5-6 summit in Kuwait. Their decision, I’m told by a top official, was spurred by concern that Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani would use a public forum, which likely would have been covered live on GCC state television during the summit, for grandstanding purposes against his fellow monarchs.  This, along with an apparent desire not to have the crisis between the leaders spill into the public nor to negotiate in public or through competing state media outlets, also were factors, according to the official.