Gulf nations vow unity at historic GCC Summit

Al Ula - 'There is a desperate need today to unite our efforts to promote our region and to confront challenges'

Full ties have been restored between Qatar and the Gulf nations, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

“What happened today is the turning of the page on all points of difference and a full return of diplomatic relations,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a Press conference at the conclusion of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who led the UAE’s delegation, said the summit had brought unity to the region. “The changes and challenges surrounding us require strength, cohesion and real Gulf cooperation,” he tweeted.

Leaders of the six-member GCC signed two documents on Tuesday, the Al Ula Declaration, named after the Saudi city where this year’s regional summit was held, and a final communique.

Saudi Arabia had led a coalition of countries in the Gulf and beyond to cut ties and transport links with Qatar in June 2017, after it was seen to be backing radical groups.

Those countries, along with Oman and Kuwait which have mediated between the two sides, signed the rapprochement deal, after Riyadh re-opened its land, sea and air borders to Doha.

“There is a desperate need today to unite our efforts to promote our region and to confront challenges that surround us, especially the threats posed by the Iranian regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme and its plans for sabotage and destruction,” said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The Al Ula agreement signed at this blessed summit confirms Gulf, Arab and Islamic unity and stability” the Crown Prince added.

The Al Ula Declaration “affirms our Gulf, Arab and Islamic solidarity and stability,”, he told the meeting, in comments echoed by other leaders.

But the warm welcome Prince Mohammed extended to Qatar’s Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with the pair embracing at the airport and then chatting animatedly, indicates a significant breakthrough.

Sheikh Tamim, visiting Saudi for the first time since the crisis began, was taken with the other leaders through Al Ula’s dramatic Martian landscape to the shimmering Maraya Concert Hall, a mirrored structure situated in a nearby valley.

Later, Saudi state media tweeted a photo of the Saudi Crown Princeyoung Saudi de facto leader behind the wheel of his sports utility vehicle, taking Sheikh Tamim on a tour of the area.

Full ties 
with Qatar restored