Oman Tries to Mediate Qatar Split at Crisis Talks

Omani Officials Warn Row Threatens to End GCC Alliance

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJune 6, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsGCC, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

GCC officials are making emergency visits to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today to attend “crisis talks” related to the split between Saudi Arabia and its allies and the tiny nation of Qatar, which has led to an outright severing of diplomatic ties and the closing of the Qatari border, as well as expulsion of Qatari nations from around the region.

Oman will reportedly be taking the lead in trying to mediate some sort of resolution to this latest crisis, with their foreign minister having been in Qatar only yesterday at the behest of the Emir, who asked Oman to try to use its influence to salvage the relationship between the GCC member nations is irrevocably broken.

That the Saudis are hosting these talks at all is noteworthy however, as in recent days they’ve seemed to revel in their newfound hostility toward neighboring Qatar, and by all indications Qatar was more than willing to just go back to the way things were before this past week and a half of hostility.

Oman fits importantly into this discussion, as they’ve got better diplomatic ties with Iran than the rest of the GCC, and most of the hostility toward Qatar stems from the Qatari Emir being quoted as saying he’s averse to starting a war against Iran, something the Saudi and Bahrani royal families quickly pounced on as a sign he was improperly pro-Iran.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/06/06/oman-tries-to-mediate-qatar-split-at-crisis-talks/