Bahrain and Qatar re-establish diplomatic ties, the last barrier to Gulf Arab reconciliation

High expectations have been met. With the aim of strengthening cooperation between the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the governments of Qatar and Bahrain have announced the restoration of bilateral diplomatic relations. They have done so after six years of estrangement over accusations by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates of Doha's role in the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.  

"Both sides confirmed that this decision stems from the mutual desire to develop bilateral relations and enhance integration in the GCC, as well as unity in favour of the GCC statutes, and to enhance respect for the principles of equality between states, sovereignty and national independence, territorial integrity and good neighbourliness," read the letter published after a meeting in Riyadh, the headquarters of the Arab forum, between the Secretary General of the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Hasan al Jamadi, and the Under-Secretary for Political Affairs of Bahrain, Saij Abdula bin Ahmed al Kalifa.

This is the second meeting of the Bahrain-Qatar monitoring committee mediated by Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and leader of the new and unprecedented era of détente in the region after the conflicts that erupted in 2011. 

Bahrain thus joins the will of its GCC member partners, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, expressed in the Al-Ula Declaration of 2021, by which they decided to turn the page on the boycott they have been subjecting Qatar to since 2017. The goal for the GCC, achieved in its own right with the reconciliation of Doha and Manama, was to bring the Gulf states together to address the region's challenges and achieve security and prosperity. 

This is being achieved. With the same purpose in mind, Saudi Arabia resumed relations with Iran, also with Syria, and is now leading the peace process in Yemen, the Persian Gulf's most conflict-ridden bastion. A diplomatic thaw was the central theme of the last GCC summit, the 155th session of the Council of Ministers. The same body that summed up the meeting as "a hope" that the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia "constitutes a positive step towards resolving differences and ending all regional disputes through dialogue and diplomatic means".

Stronger Gulf cooperation comes at a time when China is eyeing the economic benefits it could gain from a region free of conflict and in the face of an increasingly weakened US presence. However, Washington is cautiously following the determined steps of the GCC, which it considers "allies". 

"The United States has been working since the beginning of the Biden Administration to strengthen regional integration, de-escalation, and rapprochement among U.S. allies," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement. He also called Bahrain and Qatar "key members" of the GCC, whose rapprochement "is an important step in establishing a more stable and prosperous Middle East region".