Tabnak – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Saudi Arabia today to discuss with the high-ranking Saudi officials the recent rift between Qatar and the other GCC nations. This is while, the Saudis have not yet shown any sign of willingness to soften their stance regarding Qatar.
Tillerson’s trip from Kuwait to the western Saudi city of Jiddah follows talks the previous day with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He has also held discussions with the ruler of Kuwait, who is mediating the dispute.
The Washington Post reports that the US official met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on arrival in the Red Sea city. He was also expected to meet with officials from the rest of the GCC member-states later in the day before returning to Kuwait.
He will likely press the Arab nations to ease up on some of their demands after he secured a deal with Qatar on Tuesday to intensify its fight against terrorism and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding.
However, Saudi Arabia and its allies have announced that the deal reached between the US and Qatar over battling terrorism is "insufficient” while stressing that anti-Doha sanctions will remain in place.
In a statement released yesterday, Saudi Arabia and its allies declared that the deal was "the result of pressure and repeated calls over the past years by the four states and their partners upon Qatar to stop supporting terrorism.”
However, the statement claims that "this step is insufficient,” adding that Qatari authorities "cannot be trusted,” and the quartet (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) would "carefully monitor the seriousness of Qatari authorities in combating all forms of financing, supporting and harboring terrorism.”
Wednesday's trip to Saudi Arabia is the third leg of Tillerson's four-day trip to the Persian Gulf aimed at helping find a solution to the ongoing dispute in the region. US officials said to Aljazeera that Tillerson does not expect an immediate breakthrough, which they warned could be months away. Rather, they said, he wants to explore possibilities for prompting negotiations.
Meanwhile, on the side-effects of the ongoing crisis in the region, Reuters reports that Qatar's tensions with its neighbors are making world markets edgy about any hint of financial instability among the Persian Gulf economies, whose vast store of petrodollar savings permeate global investments.
The report adds that the diplomatic spat are already fueling a rise in global borrowing costs by preparing to unwind years of super-easy credit. Any petrodollar repatriation by Persian Gulf states in a deeper crisis could exacerbate financial strains.
At the same time, the European Union (EU) has warned that the Arab regional grouping of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) might collapse as a result of the current diplomatic dispute among its member states.
Speaking on Monday, EU foreign policy director Federica Mogherini said the European bloc was "worried” that the GCC "might come disunited out of these tensions.”
On June 22, the Saudi-led group issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Aljazeera, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions. Doha rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list "null and void".
