The National quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security Bilal Y. Saab on challenges facing the Gulf Cooperation Council ahead of its annual meeting in December:
Observers are waiting for the GCC’s annual meeting, to be held in Doha this December, to see how tensions over the Muslim Brotherhood have cooled. While Kuwaiti officials said they were optimistic about their mediation efforts, others are more pessimistic about the level of rapprochement.
“The problems are deepening because Qatar’s neighbours feel that it is only paying lip service to their concerns,” said Bilal Saab of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who recently met with senior GCC officials during a trip to the region.