Fraying Saudi-UAE Ties Put U.S. Objectives at Risk
Once close allies, the two Gulf states are increasingly at odds over political and economic interests. The rivalry complicates investors’ choices while giving greater leverage to Iran.
Growing apart.
Photographer: Rashed Al Mansoori /UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs
By tradition, the communiqué at the end of every Gulf Cooperation Council summit meeting is a bromide about friendship among the member states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. The joint declaration is usually long on promise but short on any real purpose beyond concealing discord.
Even by that low standard, the document released at the end of the latest gathering of Gulf leaders in Riyadh on Dec. 14 was the wispiest of fig leaves. The usual invocation of unity did little to hide the growing rivalry between the group’s two most important members, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.