The Gulf summit kicked off Sunday in Riyadh amid the absence of three leaders - the emir of Qatar, Sultan of Oman and the president of the UAE - at a time when Kuwait's ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah warned of continued differences.

In his speech at the opening of the summit, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz stressed his keenness to preserve the integrity of the Gulf Cooperation Council. He said that "the Arab coalition countries were keen to save the Yemeni people," saying that the Iranian regime is still a threat to a number of countries.

King Abdullah called for a political solution to bring Syria out of its crisis and called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards the Palestinians.

For his part, the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said that "the continuation of the Gulf dispute presents the Council a serious threat to the unity of the situation."

The Amir pointed out that the holding of the summit confirms the keenness of all on the role of the Gulf Cooperation Council, pointing out that meetings have been held for a number of ministerial committees in the GCC over the past year.

Stop media campaigns
He called on the Emir of Kuwait to "stop the media campaigns that planted the seeds of strife and discord among our children," adding that this would be "an introduction to create the atmosphere to resolve the dispute between us."

"The world has begun, unfortunately, to view our Gulf entity as suffering from vibration," Sheikh Sabah said. "The world began to doubt that its interests no longer enjoyed the guarantees we had given it because of the Gulf dispute."

On the Yemeni crisis, the Emir of Kuwait said that the continuation of the conflict in Yemen "poses a direct threat to all of us," expressing the hope that the negotiations in Sweden will reach a solution to the crisis. Sheikh Sabah stressed that "our relations with Iran on the principles adopted by the United Nations the most important non-interference in our affairs."

While noting that the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria continues, he said he hoped to reach a political solution based on international resolutions.

Sheikh Sabah stressed the need to reach a comprehensive and lasting peace in accordance with the Arab peace initiative, saying that the peace process is being frozen and ignored by the international community.

The Gulf summit is being held in Riyadh, the second summit to be held under Qatar's blockade by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain since June 5, 2017.

The Qatari delegation was headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, after Qatar received an official invitation from Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, in a written letter to the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, handed over by the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Zayani.

The country representation at the current summit is the lowest since the periodic decision of the Gulf Summit. Despite the embargo and the three countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain) represented their ambassadors at the last Kuwait summit, the Emir of Qatar was keen to participate in the summit.

While Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa participated in the summit, such as Oman's Deputy Prime Minister Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.