Dubai: The Qatar crisis was not taken up at the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in Kuwait, a Kuwaiti daily reported.
“The agenda of the GCC Ministerial Council discussed regular issues on the agenda, including economic cooperation, the role of consultative committees, joint agreements, gas and electricity projects, and the empowerment of women,” diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by Al Rai on Tuesday.
Internal Gulf solution sought to Qatar crisis
“The ministers or their deputies avoided discussing the Qatari crisis in order not to put the cart before the horse and not to thwart the rapprochement efforts."
According to the diplomatic sources, the decision regarding the Qatar crisis was left by the foreign ministers to their leaders or their representatives at the summit.
The meeting was held one day ahead of the GCC summit on Tuesday and Wednesday at Al Bayan Palace in Kuwait City.
Doubt?
The summit had remained in doubt after Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cut off their diplomatic, commercial and travel links with fellow GCC member Qatar on June 5 after they accused it of funding terrorism and interference in their domestic affairs of other countries.
The three countries, and Egypt which also cut off its ties with Doha, presented a list of 13 demands to Qatar which rejected them, deepening the standoff.
Kuwait has exerted strenuous efforts to mediate between the two sides and although no real breakthrough in the crisis has been achieved, it has succeeded in bringing the six members of the GCC to Kuwait for their annual summit as scheduled. Oman is the sixth member of the alliance set up in 1981 in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
