Qatar joins drills in Saudi Arabia in sign of GCC thaw

Military forces from the tiny but wealthy nation of Qatar participated in “joint” regional defense drills in Saudi Arabia this week, signaling a potential thaw in the biting diplomatic standoff that has pitted the Saudis and other Arab powers against Qatar for the past year — a standoff that has created headaches for the Trump administration.

Doha’s official QNA news agency said officers from the nation took part in ground, air and sea force drills that included representatives from some 25 Mideast countries. Al Jazeera, which is financed by Qatar, reported that the participation aimed to “strengthen brotherly relations” among so-called Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The U.S.-allied GCC has been mired in a diplomatic crisis since last year, when key members Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — along with Egypt — banded together to impose an economic and diplomatic blockade against Qatar over what they claim is support for jihadi groups and excessive deference to Iran.

The Shiite Muslim government in Tehran is a chief rival of Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim kingdom widely seen as the most powerful member of the GCC.

Qatar claims the charges brought against it by the Saudis and other Arab powers are baseless. But the flap has presented a sticky challenge for Washington, which maintains America’s most strategic Mideast military base in Qatar.

While President Trump has appeared at times to publicly side with Saudi Arabia and the others against Qatar, his administration has also scrambled to ease the tensions within the GCC and to keep relations smooth with the Qataris, which sits atop some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves.

A Trump administration push to resolve the GCC crisis hung in the background during recent but very separate visits to the White House by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

That the Qataris rejoined other GCC countries in this week’s military drills in Saudi Arabia was seen by some in the region as a breakthrough, although it remains to be seen whether the development will lead to a lifting of the diplomatic blockade against Doha.

Qatari media said the nation’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem attended the closing ceremony of the drills on invitation from his Saudi counterpart, Lt. Gen. Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwayli.