ORTA DOĞU VE KUZEY AFRİKA

Gulf countries have been divided into two different, mostly competing camps in terms of foreign policy choice. While Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain are acting together in their policies towards the Middle East, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman have been following diverging policies.

The Arabian Peninsula consists of seven countries, the majority of which have rich oil and natural gas resources. Among them, six of them are the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an organization that was established in 1981. The GCC countries consisting of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain have become the most important actors of Middle East politics in recent years.

Pearl Square is the square where anti-government protests gathered in 2011 as part of the popular uprising in Bahrain. Bahrain witnessed the biggest popular protests among the Gulf states during the 2011 Arab uprising period. The protests were suppressed with the intervention of Saudi army.

The Iran-Iraq war was a milestone in Middle Eastern geopolitics. There are two reasons for describing the war as a "unique" one. First, the war lasted more than the two World Wars. Second, it was a hybrid war in which the use of missiles, chemical weapons, and attacks on oil tankers were witnessed. Due to the use of such instruments, the conflict would also be called as "Tanker War".

Qatar, which differs from the countries in the Gulf region in terms of foreign policy line, has maintained this difference during the Arab revolutions period as well. Considering the popular uprisings in the region as the beginning of a transformation towards democratization, Qatar supported revolutionary initiatives in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and especially in Egypt. During the process, it can be said that Qatar played a role in the success of the revolutionary processes through unconventional foreign policy instruments rather than through conventional methods. The most important of these tools is the al-Jazeera channel, which allowed revolutionary demonstrations to reach a large audience.

The revolutionary process in Egypt has been the most visible example of the intervention of Gulf States during the Arab uprising developments. Particularly Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were the most aggressive foreign policy actors during the counter-revolution process in Egypt.

Qatar's primary motivations in its active role in the Syrian conflict can be identified firstly as increasing its influence in the region, and secondly hoping that its active role in conflict resolution would help to materialize its energy ambitions in the area.

In contrast with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, another playmaker in the Gulf, Qatar has supported the legitimate government of Libya, which represents Libyan people. To cut off arms supplies to Khalifa Haftar and to prevent Haftar's forces from gaining the upper hand in the Libyan conflict, Qatar has supported UN-oriented peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The anti-regime protests that started in 2011 in Yemen turned into a conflict environment in which regional actors were heavily involved. By 2014, clashes accelerated when anti-government Houthi militias took over the capital city Sana'a. Upon these developments, President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi issued a letter that addressed the United Nations General Assembly and called for an intervention to prevent this crisis in Yemen. In response, the Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates launched the Decisive Storm Operation in 2015. Thus, the Gulf States' intervention in the Yemen crisis started.

Although there are no formal bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, rapprochement between these two in progress. There are several pushing factors behind this logic. Due to the Barack Obama administration's nuclear agreement with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel began to worry about the increasing influence of Tehran in the region. Secondly, the Arab Revolutions destabilized the region, which undermined the interests of the countries above that would like to preserve the status quo. Both countries' perception towards the rise of "moderate Islam", which is mostly represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the close relations with the Doland Trump administration can be considered as other factors that bring Riyadh and Tel Aviv together.

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.