Manama: Mystery surrounding the next Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit deepened amid conflicting reports whether it will be held in Qatar as scheduled or moved to another member country.

The rotational annual summit is expected on December 9 in Doha, and a meeting of the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to discuss preparations was scheduled for November 10.

However, the ministerial meeting was put off without an official explanation, prompting intense speculation whether the postponement was just for a few days or indefinite. An unnamed GCC official, however, said on Monday that the meeting was postponed “indefinitely”.

The emergence of reports claiming that the summit would be moved from Doha to Kuwait City or Riyadh has added intrigue to the diplomatic row in the GCC, the loose alliance established in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi in 1981.

Saudi-owned daily Al Hayat on Monday cited a “reliable source” as saying the mediation has “not yielded any results”, and that talks were now under way to move the summit to either Kuwait or Riyadh instead.

Reports said that moving the summit to another GCC capital would help ensure that the annual gathering of the Gulf leaders is not cancelled.

However, Kuwaiti daily Al Nahar on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources, denied that a decision regarding the Doha summit had been taken.

According to the newspaper, the GCC leaders or their representatives will next week hold a meeting in Riyadh to discuss the situation and agree on the venue of their summit.

“It will be a crucial meeting to help settle some pending issues, particularly that the region is going through delicate and sensitive times that require the GCC states to be more united and robust to weather the storms and consolidate their previous successes in overcoming all obstacles,” the sources said.

According to the diplomats, a decision to move the venue of a GCC summit is taken only after intense consultation and at the highest levels.

Reports that the Kuwait rapprochement drive has been stalled were denied as “untrue”.

“The efforts by Kuwait to bridge the gap between Qatar and the other three GCC countries — Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — are still continuing and at various levels,” the sources said.

In Qatar, the local media on Tuesday carried reports referring to the preparations to hold the summit in Doha.

Last week, Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the GCC visited Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.

However, reports that surfaced before the weekend about a breakthrough in the GCC relations following the tour have not been officially confirmed and the decisions by two GCC countries to pull out of the 2015 men’s World Handball Championships in Qatar was the latest indication of the tension that persists within the GCC.

The unprecedented diplomatic crisis became public in March when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE recalled their ambassadors from Qatar to protest against Doha’s policies that they described as non-compatible with the general principles and goals of the GCC.

The three countries said Qatar interfered in their domestic affairs and supported groups that were hostile to them.

Doha, however, denied the claims and insisted on its commitment to the Gulf alliance. An accord was reached in April to work on overcoming the differences and an ad hoc committee, made up of representatives from all the member states, was set up to monitor the situation.

Its work and reports have been kept secret despite the public claims and counterclaims about breakthroughs in the deadlock and the reinstatement of the ambassadors.

Oman’s foreign minister Yousuf Bin Alawi insisted on the need to go ahead with the summit.

“We as a regional international group must hold the summit at its venue and at the scheduled date despite our particular feelings because differences can be settled only through meetings and dialogues,” the minister said in an interview published by the London-based Al Sharq Al Awsat on Sunday.