The agenda of divergence between member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is posing a threat to the Gulf Summit, scheduled to be held in Kuwait next week amid regional, internal and economic crises that are tearing apart the very fabric upon which the GCC was formed to bring together each of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Indeed, the region comprising these countries is nearly surrounded with instability and with countries threatened with failure, which should awaken GCC states to the necessity of innovative thinking into ways of overcoming the agenda of divergence and the disputes which span from borders to money. It is not sufficient for passing reconciliations to take place, nor is it useful to make a show of brotherly bonds amid bitter feelings. Indeed, if it is impossible to unite these countries in a council that has sought after a form of semi-unity characterized by its members, stances should at least be united towards security challenges, so as not to allow them to storm GCC countries collectively and individually, challenges such as those coming from Iran, Yemen and perhaps Iraq if it remains unstable. Similarly, the Palestinian issue should not be merely addressed with the customary salute. Rather, the perspectives of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's insistence on not being a candidate to the presidency should be tackled seriously. Indeed, the GCC summit will not be able to leap over the challenges of the peace process by exempting itself from responsibility. As for the crises between GCC states, they are perhaps the easiest/hardest step which it is high time to face candidly and with solutions. The crisis of the GCC Secretary-General is an unnecessary one. The Kuwait summit should be an opportunity for Qatar to accept what the five other countries in the council have agreed to, which is for Bahrain's candidate, Mohammed Al-Mutawa, to be the next Secretary-General. Indeed, Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah has carried out tasks he should be thanked for during his third term as Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, yet there is no need to renew and extend his term for the fourth time. Hence it would be useful for Qatar to take the initiative of causing a positive surprise during the Kuwait summit by announcing that it will withdraw from the summit's program an issue that is weakening the progress of the GCC and accept the consensus of the five other Gulf countries over the candidacy of Bahrain's former state minister. This is how Al-Attiyah would be bid farewell as he deserves, and this is how the Kuwait summit would be opened as it deserves. The dispute between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over borders and over the location of the headquarters of the Gulf Central Bank (GCB) must be tackled because security challenges require it. Indeed, the 1974 agreement between Sheikh Zayed and King Faisal, which stated that the UAE would concede to Saudi Arabia the Buraimi area, separating Abu Dhabi from Qatar within the framework of the land swap formula, has now become subjected to international laws. There is no need to reconsider or review the agreement, regardless of whether this area contains oil or has a strategic significance. Indeed, neither retracting such agreements is easy under international law, nor is there need for such a crisis and for reactions to it such as those of the champions of freedom of movement without passports between GCC countries, or for putting forth complaints that turn the attention away from the priorities of security challenges at the Gulf summit. The Kuwait summit must be an opportunity to take the initiative of containing the tension in relations between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, whether it is tension connected to the borders or to the disagreement over the headquarters of the Gulf Central Bank. If it is too late, for instance, for give-and-take over its headquarters being located in Riyadh rather than Abu Dhabi, there are certainly many fields and ideas which the Saudi side could suggest to make the UAE side feel that it is not being taken lightly, and to instead emphasize the importance of the fundamental KSA-UAE partnership in facing challenges, and in order to resolve crises and defend against the dangers that threaten the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Indeed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the country most qualified for Arab leadership in the face of regional and international challenges. And leadership requires avoiding making partners feel like followers, it requires considering concessions to be positive measures because they help reach solutions, it requires ceasing to consider transparency to be at odds with it, and it requires mobilizing the desire of partners to work and think together of how to organize priorities. Perhaps Iraq is the easiest of the tough steps in the series of challenges that nearly besiege the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Yet the future of Iraq must be the object of serious discussion at the Kuwait summit, in order to set down a preemptive strategy to prevent the situation in Iraq from deteriorating and to form a healthy relationship with it on the long run. That is the principle of collective responsibility which the Gulf Cooperation Council unfortunately lacks. Perhaps Dubai's economic crisis is a warning for the region. Yet a post-crisis Dubai requires from the Gulf region collective thinking, collective desire and collective measures on various levels and financial structures. Indeed, Dubai may for some be a nightmare that has awoken them from a pleasant dream. Yet Dubai is in fact a crisis it would have perhaps been useful to invent had it not taken place. Indeed, Dubai is an attempt in which there is boldness and creativity that deserves to be admired and emulated, as well as initiative to undertake that deserves to be appreciated. And when the Gulf Cooperation Council summit is held in Kuwait, it will be very useful for the summit to deal innovatively with the Dubai crisis, such as to make the post-crisis phase an opportunity to profit. The attempts to obstruct the bold democratic experience in Kuwait is an issue that deserves pausing upon for an in-depth look at the reasons and aims behind such obstruction, as well as at its perspectives and significance. Matters such as this one are examined thoroughly at regional European summits, and yet addressing it is currently unlikely at the GCC summit despite the importance of the issue, both at present and for the future. Indeed, internal crises take the backseat before regional crises, although the connection in some cases between internal and regional issues is quite evident, despite the attempts that are made to suppress it. Certainly the Islamic Republic of Iran plays on the internal sensitive spots of Gulf Cooperation Council countries and represents a multifaceted security challenge for the GCC and its member-states. One of the sources of such a challenge focuses on the main line of the relationship of GCC states with one another in the face and as a result of the Iranian challenge and of the crises resulting from it. Qatar and Oman do not view Iran as a source of threats to Arab interests or to Arab states, and they, by virtue of such a stance, represent a corner of instability in the structure of the GCC itself. Oman in particular is a bird that sings in a completely different flock from that of the four other countries in the GCC, not just towards Iran but also in the framework of the crisis with the Houthis in Yemen. Indeed, Oman does not consider itself a partner in warning of the Houthi danger, and there are those who point to fears of significant disputes erupting during the Gulf summit in Kuwait over the Houthi crisis because of the rumors of Oman turning a blind eye to aid to the Houthis in neighboring Yemen. The majority of Gulf Cooperation Council states consider the Houthis to be a threat not just to the security of Saudi Arabia, but to that of the Gulf as a whole. Saudi Arabia is waging a war against the Houthis at its border with Yemen in difficult mountainous areas and has evacuated thousands of inhabitants from border areas to prevent armed infiltration. Indeed, the matter is fateful at the security level, and there is no way for Saudi Arabia to give and take on this security issue. The GCC summit in Kuwait will face the predicament of the security challenges that will be imposed by the Houthi situation in Yemen and by Iran's relationship with the Houthis, as well as by the division in the stances of GCC states towards this issue. Indeed, there are those who stress on a policy of pleasing Iran to contain its attempts, desires or programs to destabilize the security of Gulf Cooperation Council states. Qatar might be the most prominent of such a group, and with it Oman, which does not consider Iran to be a source of danger or instability to begin with. Then there are the four other states, which support the efforts of the five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – plus Germany, which are presenting Iran with the “carrot” of dialogue and understanding and of starting a new chapter on the condition that it complies with international demands regarding the Iranian nuclear program, and which are formulating the components of the “stick” of sanctions against Iran if it refuses the carrot and tosses it aside. These countries are worried about Iran but do not want a military strike against it. They are partners in international insistence on the respect of UN resolutions and will necessarily be partners in economic sanctions if it becomes inevitable to impose them. And because Dubai is nearly the key to strengthening economic sanctions against Iran, especially if it has to fall in line with the legislation of sanctions which will be issued by the UN Security Council, it is necessary for the remaining GCC member-states not to deal with Dubai as if it had, after the crisis, lost its teeth and become unable to bite, but rather as a partner that cannot be done without. Such a language of partnership is the one which it will be useful for the Gulf summit to formulate in Kuwait in order to clear the clouds from the sky and also to replace the agenda of divergence by an agenda of a minimum of Gulf collective policy, so as to be able to confront security challenges with collective responsibility. Before holding the GCC summit, Kuwait hosted the Conference of Arab Thought to discuss Arab economic complementarity under the slogan “partners for prosperity”. Chairman of the Arab Though Foundation (ATF/Fikr) and Emir-governor of the province of the Holy City of Mecca Prince Khalid Al-Faisal launched the notion of “the culture of optimism” last year and led it to the notion of partnership for prosperity. Let then optimism about the agenda of partnership in collective responsibility be put forth as a project at the Kuwait summit, one the implementation of which would lead to the progress of reassurance and hope for prosperity. And this will not take place unless the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council first resolve to draft and adopt the notion of collective responsibility.
