Is openness and reconciliation the beginning of a new approach to the Cooperation Council?

From inside the unique "Maraya" hall that entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest building covered with mirrors in the world in Al-Ula, northwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the 41st GCC summit, or the summit of Sultan Qaboos and Sabah Al-Ahmad, ended on Tuesday. After that lasted for a few hours, during which the GCC states signed a long final statement, which highlighted the call for developing solid relations and respecting the principles of good neighborliness.

The Al-Ula summit was titled "Clarity and Reconciliation," and according to the statements of the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, it led to the closing of the page of the past and the aspiration for a future dominated by cooperation.

The summit was welcomed by international and regional parties, but at the same time those same parties called for the completion of the reconciliation process between the rest of the Gulf parties (the UAE and Bahrain) and Qatar.

It was observed that matters took place at the summit as if reconciliation was limited to two countries, namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to official statements issued by the two countries praising what had been done, compared to modest statements or closer to caution than the rest of the various parties with Qatar, which suggests that what happened in Al-Ula Rather, it can be considered a step in the journey of a thousand miles, or a journey of frankness and reconciliation, and it means that the wager now is based on time in the matter of reaching a stage of building mutual trust, supporting relations and optimism prevailing in the region's atmosphere that continues to worsen and tense, but increases tension whenever the atmosphere is turbulent outside The system, turbulence, may be one of the origins of the crisis, exemplified by the almost continuous tension between the United States and Iran.

According to observers, the United States played an important role in accelerating reconciliation procedures, especially after the current President Donald Trump lost the presidential race, whose administration worked to accelerate the pace to achieve external gains, one of which is the Gulf crisis, and the need to solve it and achieve a gain invested by President Trump in the race to the presidency The year 2024 that he finally announced, and perhaps this gain may be missed by his opponent, Joe Biden, or so observers see.

As earlier in the summit, a senior US administration official, who refused to disclose his identity, confirmed that a breakthrough was achieved in the dispute that has been going on for more than 3 years between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, and that at the time Saudi Arabia made clear its intention to lift the blockade - which is what It happened since last Monday evening - the other three countries did not make a similar statement.

But the US official said, "We expect" that they will also join the lifting of the blockade, adding that according to the expected agreement at this summit, "Qatar will give up the lawsuits related to the blockade."

For its part, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia believes, after the changes that occurred in the American administration, that a certain approach is necessary in its crisis with Qatar, and that its reconciliation with Qatar is like a deal with a lower cost than losing a strategic ally such as the United States, as the new administration sees the need to change the approach of dealing With Riyadh, perhaps this vision is one of the accelerators in ending the Gulf crisis in any way possible, even if it is partial between Doha and Riyadh at the current stage, provided that it will be completed in a later stage between Qatar and the rest of the parties.

Doha believes, for its part, according to previous statements made by Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, at the session of the Sixth Rome Forum for Mediterranean Dialogue, that "Qatar is optimistic about resolving the Gulf crisis."

Pointing out that any kind of settlement to the crisis should be comprehensive and preserve the unity of the Gulf, and that he hopes that matters will move in the right direction, but we cannot predict whether the move is imminent, or the conflict will be completely resolved, and we cannot say that all problems will be solved in a day. One".

This means that the Qatari vision for dismantling and resolving the crisis implies calm and caution, and realizes that dealing with the parties to the crisis should be done separately, each separately, considering that what Doha disagrees with with Riyadh is not the one in dispute with Abu Dhabi or Manama, and then The matter requires openness and proper and careful planning to end all disputes in order to prevent them from reappearing, and distance from temporary calming solutions that have not increased the Gulf without losing.

The entity of the Cooperation Council, four decades after its establishment, is still fragile and flexible, and it was not able to endure, especially in intra-regional crises. Rather, it was closer to isolation.

And it was actually several times around the corner from disintegration, like other Arab and regional entities that appeared and then quickly disappeared.

The principles that were signed at the last summit, including respect for the sovereignty of states, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and respect for the foreign policies of the members, are required to be strengthened and confirmed, and before that they are respected. Principles with various arguments and justifications.

Can the Al-Ula summit be considered a summit of restoration of the parliament’s entity, through its new slogan for its current session, “frankness and reconciliation”, to walk again, with confident and steady steps in light of the crises scattered around it, or will things quickly return to what they were, and the council returns to its usual routine?

Everyone is waiting and watching.