Gulf Cooperation Council

Saudi international relations expert Dr. Salem Alyami told Saudi news network Al Arabiya on Wednesday that the Kingdom’s major diplomatic concern at the moment is containing the Iran-Israel conflict to keep the rest of the Middle East from destabilizing.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi published a joint statement on Thursday affirming their desire to “boost cooperation in the battle against terrorism,” as well as strengthen commercial and national security ties.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, made a point on Tuesday of getting himself photographed waving the flag of Saudi Arabia during the Saudi match against Argentina at the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud became the first foreign top diplomat to visit China in 2022 on Monday, meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss what Wang described as “high-level China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership.”

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, told reporters at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday that his country and its allies will “fully set our differences aside” with Qatar, ending a virtual blockade that has endured for over three years.

Israeli media reported on Friday that the Kingdom of Bahrain will normalize relations with Israel, following the same path as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which announced a peace deal with Israel on August 13.

The Daily Beast published a report Monday documenting “at least 19 fake personas” that managed to “place more than 90 opinion pieces in 46 different publications” over the past year praising the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) while criticizing its adversaries Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, at the start of two emergency summits in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday, intensified rhetoric against its regional foe Iran, urging Arab leaders to combat Tehran’s “criminal actions” in the Middle East and beyond.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly expected to convene an emergency summit in the holy city of Mecca on Thursday aimed at discussing recent “aggressions and their consequences” with top Gulf Arab leaders amid escalating military tensions between Iran and the United States.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi-owned media accused Iran-backed rebels in Yemen on Tuesday of targeting Islam’s holiest city Mecca after Riyadh and its allies said they had intercepted two missiles over the kingdom.

Syria’s state-run media published photos of citizens marching in the streets on Tuesday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime’s patrons in Iran denounced the decision, while the increasingly Islamist government of Turkey vowed to fight the U.S. and Israel at the United Nations.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called for “unity and harmony” among Persian Gulf states as he welcomed Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Beijing on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that a rift between Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbors had gone on for too long and was threatening regional unity needed to counter Iran.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, denounced the Saudi-led blockade of his country as a “flagrant violation” of international law in his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

The dispute between Qatar and its Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors now threatens to reshape both the political and literal geography of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is considering a plan to dig a canal that would turn the Qatari peninsula into an island.

An “Arab NATO” security coalition of Middle East states is being planned by Washington as a buffer to thwart Iran’s military expansionism in the region.

During his visit to Jordan on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that Jordan’s stability is “indispensable for regional stability” and pledged to “dramatically develop our bilateral ties” on security and trade issues.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates has begun collecting new “sin” taxes on tobacco products, energy drinks and soft drinks.

President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed efforts by the leader of Kuwait, a staunch American ally, to mediate a festering diplomatic crisis involving Qatar and its Arab neighbors that could have implications for the U.S. military presence in the region.

Four Arab nations seeking to isolate Qatar for its alleged support for terrorism issued a statement Wednesday saying that Doha’s response to their demands to end the crisis was “not serious.”

Contents: Saudi Arabia extends sanctions deadline for two days; Saudi Arabia and UAE threaten Qatar with additional sanctions; North Korea launches another ballistic missile

US President Donald Trump spoke separately with several leaders of nations in the Persian Gulf region and addressed ongoing disputes between Qatar and some of its Arab neighbors, as Gulf states that levied a de facto blockade on Doha extended a deadline on answering demands by two days.

A top United Arab Emirates official said Saturday the Arab countries isolating Qatar do not seek to force out the country’s leadership over allegations it supports extremist ideology but are willing to cut ties altogether if it does not agree to their demands.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump brought carrots and sticks, respectively, to the dispute between Qatar and several other Arab nations on Friday. Soon after Tillerson called for an end to the diplomatic crisis, Trump said a news conference that Qatar “unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”

Contents: Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations cut ties with Qatar in new Mideast crisis; Arab nations’ split caused by Qatar’s relations with Muslim Brotherhood and Iran

A long-simmering international crisis in the Middle East boiled over on Monday as some of the most powerful nations in the Arab world severed ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and taking sides with Shiite Iran against Sunni Muslim governments.

Contents: Trump’s Mideast visit triggers renewal of sharp split between Saudi Arabia and Qatar; Qatar claims that it was cyber-attacked after media reports supporting Iran; Vitriolic Saudi-Qatari fault line reopened this week by Trump’s visit; Some useful information that’s good to know

Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday stepped up efforts to improve ties with Gulf Arab Sunni states urging them to work with their Shi’ite rival to address “anxieties” and violence across the region.

The Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been lobbying American lawmakers to change the bipartisan law that allows the families of 9/11 victims and survivors of the tragedy to sue the Gulf Arab country in U.S. courts for any role it may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched an airstrike against an aid ship owned by a company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a member of the largely Sunni Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and part of the Saudi-led Arab alliance fighting the Shiite rebels, according to the state-controlled Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Saudi Arabia and its allies have reportedly threatened to retaliate against the United States over a law that allows the families of 9/11 victims to sue the Gulf Arab kingdom in U.S. court for any role it may have played in the 2001 attacks.

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Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members and the United States have reached an agreement to prevent the shipment of Iranian weapons to Yemen, according to Abdullatif al-Zayani, the alliance’s secretary general.

JAFFA, Israel – A top Kuwaiti official has made unusually harsh remarks about President Barack Obama ahead of his visit to the Gulf region. In addition to other Arab officials, Tamer Alsabah, the head of Kuwait’s national security agency, criticized Obama for

Contents: Arab League brands Lebanon’s Hezbollah a terrorist organization; U.S. blames Iran for cyber attack on a New York dam