DOHA : The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) has proven to be economically successful, despite the fact that most members of the union h ave broken off diplomatic ties with Qatar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Anwar Gargash said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported that Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had received an invitation from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to attend the upcoming GCC summit on December 9, despite severed diplomatic ties between the two countries.
“The GCC summit in Riyadh and the forthcoming chairmanship of Oman is an indicator that the council, despite the ongoing crisis around Qatar, is successful in terms of the economy and creation of a common market in the Persian Gulf,” Gargash wrote on Twitter.
The GCC continues to function and holds technical and administrative meetings, although the strategic and political side of its activities has suffered because of Qatar’s actions, which have harmed collective interests, according to the foreign minister.
The political crisis around Qatar will end when Doha stops supporting extremism and interfering in the domestic affairs of foreign countries, Gargash underlined.
Qatar has been under a diplomatic and economic blockade since last June, when the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, among others, cut off diplomatic relations and communication with Doha, accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their internal affairs. Qatar has refuted the allegations.
On December 5, 2017, a two-day GCC summit ended within hours of its start in Kuwait without any progress being made on the diplomatic row. Leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE refused to visit the summit because of their tense relations with Doha. Instead the states were represented at the level of foreign or deputy prime ministers.