ORTA DOĞU VE KUZEY AFRİKA - Deneme Sınavı - 1

The GCC countries comprise of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Iraq, although a Gulf State, is not a member of GCC.

(In the post-2010 period, the UAE helped to depose the first democratically elected president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, substituting him with the coup plotter former General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Kirkpatrick, 2015). To secure its hand in the region, the UAE also intervened in the wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya.) The UAE foreign policy came down to supporting and encouraging nondemocratic movements and figures in the region at the expense of ignoring and eradicating people’s legit demands for their future.

In the most current times, Qatari foreign policy is facing a blockade crisis launched by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt on the pretense of so-called Qatari funds to terrorist organizations.

Oman has an absolute monarchy as a form of government. The form of government of Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain is constitutional monarchy. UAE has federal monarchy as a form of government.

All of the above are reasons for most of the Gulf countries to side with Iraq.

The ideology which can be named “Shia” was a direct threat to the rulers in some countries which have the Shia minority or majority in the populations. The Iranian regime also continued to increase its military empowerment projects. In this sense, the aggregate military power ascendancy of Iran was perceived as a tangible threat by the Gulf States. As the new Iranian regime had harshly criticized the ruling family in the Gulf, monarchies were threatened by this offensive intention. Also, Iran was able to inflame sectarian conflict in the region.

Under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, all Arab Gulf countries, including Kuwait, supported Iraq in military, financial, logistic, diplomatic ways during the Iran-Iraq War. Together with the Saudis, the Kuwaiti authorities opened the oil field at Hafji, which was a kind of support to Iraq to recover its bad economic condition.

Qatar, which traditionally differs from Saudi Arabia and the UAE in terms of foreign policy, has taken an attitude that supports the revolutionary uprisings since 2011.

The Gulf States considered the outbreak of the Arab Uprising in Syria as an opportunity to overthrow the Assad regime. By doing this, the Gulf States aimed to reduce Iranian influence in the region. In this context, it can be said that at the beginning of the movement, GCC states adopted a unified policy against the Assad regime, and supported the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia did not see any role for Assad in the post-war period in Syria, UAE, on the other hand, does not want to create a political vacuum, and feels that Assad should have a role in the post-conflict future of Syria.

All Gulf states, except Oman, participated in the intervention of Yemen crises. The Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, launched the Decisive Storm Operation in 2015. The separation of countries like Sudan and Qatar from coalition forces and the announcement that the UAE withdrew their soldiers deepened the cracks in the coalition.

Qatar has been drawing attention as the only country that presents the exact opposite stance within the Gulf countries. The country is known for its unconditional support to the Palestinian cause and close ties with Hamas. Kuwait draws attention as another country in the region that takes Palestinian cause into consideration and gives support for it. Other Gulf states, Bahrain, and Oman follow the same path that Saudi Arabia and the UAE lead.