Saudi-UAE competition threatens to upend the GCC

Saudi-UAE competition threatens to upend the GCC

The abandonment this week of attempts by Opec and its partners to increase global oil supply was the result of the United Arab Emirates blocking a deal put together by Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, and Russia.

It was the latest episode in the growing clash of interests between the two Gulf allies, bonded by the close relationship between Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the UAE, who was mentor to his counterpart Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, the young crown prince and day-to-day ruler of Saudi Arabia.

The rivalry of these two princes is now threatening the future of the Gulf Cooperation Council "” with ramifications across the wider Middle East.

The GCC, 40 years old this year, was set up after the Iranian revolution to present a common Gulf front to the Islamic Republic's attempts to export its Shia Islamist ideology. In 2011 the council's Saudi-led military arm entered Bahrain to save its Sunni minority monarchy from the Shia majority and the turmoil of the "Arab Spring". In 2017, the Saudis, Emiratis and Bahrain, along with Egypt, blockaded the gas-rich emirate of Qatar over its links with Iran and support for the Pan-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood.

Over the past two decades the GCC