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The solution to the dispute between Qatar and the Saudi-led coalition is the focus of the visit of Jared Kushner, an adviser to US President Donald Trump, who has been arriving in the region since Wednesday, amid news from that progress, albeit partial, is approaching in the Gulf crisis.
Kushner began his tour of the Gulf by visiting Qatar and meeting with his Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, without revealing what happened at the meeting, apart from referring to the discussion on “the evolution of the situation in the Middle East region. “.
The second station for the US president’s adviser will be Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and talk with him about the Gulf crisis and a host of other topics.
The first sign of Kushner’s visit to the Gulf was reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, which revealed that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are close to reaching a preliminary agreement to end their three-year conflict.
The deal is expected to open up Saudi airspace and land borders to Qatar, and end the information war between the two countries, while taking other confidence-building steps as part of a detailed plan to gradually rebuild relations. , according to the agency.
No compromises
Qatari journalist and analyst Abdullah Abdulaziz Al-Khater believes that any future agreement between Doha and the rest of the Gulf states will not include concessions from the Gulf emirate.
“If an agreement is reached, it will be in the form of basic understandings without addressing what happened at the beginning of the crisis,” he added in an interview with Al-Hurra, noting that Doha will also work to ensure that there is a margin of freedom for let the Gulf states make decisions, rather than the singularity.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed relations with Qatar in June 2017 in the context of a broader political dispute over Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its relationship with Iran and other issues, which Doha denies.
The four countries also launched an economic boycott, preventing Qatar Airways flights from using their airspace, closing the small country’s only land borders with Saudi Arabia, and preventing its ships from using its ports.
Al-Khater emphasizes that a breakthrough in the Gulf crisis depends mainly on going back four years ago and not talking about what happened during the period that followed.
The Qatari analyst believes that “Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states see Qatar as a great gain for the Cooperation Council, and also for its potential role in compatibility with Turkey and why not with Iran.”
He concludes by saying that “the strengthening of the Gulf Cooperation Council will give the countries of the region great power in the future, and this will not happen in the absence of Qatar.”
Insistence on demands
During the three years of the Gulf crisis, Qatar sought to develop its industry to ensure self-sufficiency, offset by the boycott of its neighbors. And it diverted its flights through Iran instead of Saudi Arabia.
Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The country is also home to the sprawling Al Udeid Air Base, which is home to some 10,000 US servicemen, and the advanced headquarters of the US Army Central Command.
This could be Kushner’s last trip to the region, as President Donald Trump has only a few more weeks in office as President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
The four countries submitted a list of 13 demands as a condition for reestablishing their relations with Doha, which included closing the Turkish military base on Qatari soil, reducing ties with Iran and closing Al-Jazeera.
Qatar rejected the demands of the boycotting countries, calling them “unrealistic” and “impossible to enforce”, leading to a stalemate.
Saudi political researcher Ahmed Al-Shehri says that the demands made by the boycotting countries “are legitimate and Qatar must treat them seriously so that we can talk about solving the Gulf crisis.”
In an interview with Al-Hurra, Al-Shehri ruled out the possibility that Kushner’s mediation could end the crisis, adding that “he was late, because the administration of US President Donald Trump is in its last days, and he tried to achieve an achievement before leaving the White House. “
The Saudi researcher pointed out that “decision makers do not deal with fleeting governments, since there are consequences and guarantees that the US administration must anticipate any possible agreement, and this is not possible because Trump will leave the White House in a few weeks.”
The Trump administration’s efforts came after an earlier, unsuccessful attempt by Kuwait to mediate between the two sides.
Before the outbreak of the crisis, relations between Qatar and its neighbor Saudi Arabia had been strained in recent years. Part of the tension is due to reports on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera about events in the region and Doha’s support for the demonstrations in the framework of the “Arab Spring”, especially in Egypt and Bahrain.
The two sides then exchanged accusations on other issues, from performing the Hajj in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, to hacking into “Twitter” accounts.
The dispute in the Gulf caused the division of mixed families between the two countries, and achieved more expenses for Qatari companies, in addition to hiring trips in the region and diplomatic efforts.
