Gulf Cooperation Council

President Trump, joined by White House male senior staff members, announces an agreement of normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Aug. 13, 2020. The author of this essay argues that Israel and the UAE were already “quietly cooperating” for quite a while. JOYCE N. BOGHOSIAN/WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
Talking heads are showering Donald Trump with praise over his surprise unveiling of an agreement that he said would alter the Middle East landscape by building a diplomatic bridge between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Is the coronavirus, which has hit GCC countries quite hard, going to fuel proxy wars further with the economic objective of fortunes to be made, once the fighting stops? Or dig them in deeper? Don’t overlook Russia in the scramble for reconstruction contracts.

Gulf Arab countries have nowhere to look for a bailout of their own private sector, like in the UAE, once the envy of the Arab world, as the banks just can’t pull it off. New friendships can flourish as underdogs like Morocco come out winners. But what about Iran?

Giorgio CAFIERO, Lorenzo CARRIERI
Over the past two decades, Israel and Arab Gulf monarchies have forged a tacit partnership, increasingly aligning their interests and agendas, while hiding behind a public perception of being enemies.

As`ad AbuKhalil
As soon as the news emerged three weeks ago that two oil installations in Saudi Arabia were hit, and oil tankers were attacked in the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi regime resorted to its available diplomatic weapon: summoning Arab despots and the leaders of Islamic countries to Mecca.

21st Century Wire says…
There wasn’t much ‘good’ at all in President Trump’s speech Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, prompting the question ‘what were the speech writers smoking?’ when they wrote it:

One hundred years after the disastrous Balfour Declaration, in which the British government lent its support to the campaign for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, the adolescent aspirant to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, has affirmed this “right”. He added that the land belonged to the current generation’s forefathers, so they have the right to live there in peace and safety.

Kuwaiti officials have given Iranian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country as authorities prepare to shut down the Iranian cultural mission to the country.

(ANTIMEDIA) — Thanks in part to the Washington Post, we now have a fairly decent idea of who was ultimately behind the denigration of relations between Qatar and a number of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, particularly Saudi Arabia.

(ANTIMEDIA) — Late last week, Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that are involved in attempting to isolate Qatar sent the tiny Gulf nation a list of 13 demands. They are insisting that Qatar meet these demands within ten days or face unspecified further action.