Two days after Qatar announced its withdrawal from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Bloomberg website published Wednesday an analysis that did not rule out its withdrawal from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which would "upset Saudi Arabia and embarrass it."
The author, Bobby Ghosh, said in his article that Qatar's justification for its withdrawal from OPEC after a membership of 57 years, can easily - and even more convincingly - be used to justify exit from the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Qatar's former prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, said in a tweet that OPEC was only used for purposes aimed at harming his country's interests. "This is doubly applied within the GCC, where Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the main drivers of Qatar's blockade.
Qatar has nothing to gain from its survival in the Council, especially since the Council, in his view, has little influence in regional affairs.
At the same time, Ghosh said Qatar's withdrawal from the council could offer Saudi Arabia and the UAE an opportunity to support their accusations that Qatar is undermining the Arab consensus, so staying in this bloc would put the responsibility for ending the blockade on Saudis and Emiratis.
He said that Kuwait and Oman were unhappy with the "Saudi bullying." Kuwaitis also said they wanted to see efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis at the Gulf summit next week.
More importantly, according to the writer, Washington will not agree to any attempt to expel Qatar, increasing the pressure on Saudi Arabia to end the crisis and lift the blockade.