Diplomatic experts urge GCC to react more quickly to regional issues

With the growing number of safety concerns, the coalition was urged to take necessary steps to keep crises from growing.

Dr Albadr S Alshateri, an adjunct professor at the National Defence College, told the Strategic Debate this week that 'the GCC have always had concerns with Yemen'. Delores Johnson / The National

ABU DHABI // GCC countries were urged to act faster in dealing with regional crises, diplomatic experts said this week.
And with the growing number of security concerns in the area, the GCC was advised to take the necessary steps soon to keep problems from spreading.
"Historically, the GCC have always had concerns with Yemen," said Dr Albadr Alshateri, adjunct professor at the National Defence College in Abu Dhabi. "The GCC, especially Saudi Arabia, viewed the political environment in northern Yemen as an important factor for the shift in regional politics. Since then, there is a concern in the Gulf about the political development in Yemen."
Dr Alshateri was addressing an audience at the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate this week as part of a talk on the impact of "hotspots" on regional geopolitical projects.
"There is a security interest of GCC countries in Yemen," he said. "Yemen in a sense represents a soft valley of those countries and cannot be neglected."
The Gulf also has strategic concerns with the country, he added.
"Who controls the Bab Al Mandar Straits is very important because a lot of trade and oil go through them," he said. "Another concern is economic but given the poor infrastructure and political instability, this factor doesn't play as much a role."
Another concern relates to culture affinity.
"This might sound very simple but, for the GCC, there is something like symbolism for culture affinity and the sort of origin of the tribes in this country [that have] to be from Yemen," Dr Alshateri said. "The Gulf views Yemen as being part of one sort of family despite lagging behind."
He said economic aid from the Gulf was vital for the country. "There was a lot of economic aid from the GCC to Yemen," he added. "Yemen has 18 per cent unemployment rate. Yemenis have interests in GCC markets but given the low level of productivity, they can't [grow]."
He said there was a mutual interest between the region and Yemen in security, economics and politics.
"If south Yemen split from the north, the GCC has a very important role to play in stabilising at least part of the country because stabilising the north is beyond the capacity of GCC states at this moment," he said. "Given all these problems, it seems to me that it will be in the Gulf's benefit if this happens as they can work to stabilise the south then work from there but it's very important to take those steps early on."
But some criticised the slow pace of Gulf countries to act in crises.
"The lack of empowering people in the Arab world is the reason governments fail," said Hisham Melhem, Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya. "Unless the Arabs admit it, own it and stop blaming colonialism", nothing will change. The same holds true for Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq, he said.
Dr Ahmad Saif, director of the Sheba Centre for Strategic Studies in Sanaa, said the GCC initiative was created for this purpose.
"We have to work on this very quickly with or without the international community," he said. "The GCC is more than enough for Yemen but Gulf countries are very slow in response so they have to have a more sophisticated regime that's very responsive or anticipate a crisis on the horizon."
Dr Ibtisam Al Kitbi, chairwoman of the Emirates Policy Centre, which organised the debate, and a political scientist at UAE University, said the benefits reaped from the two-day event emphasised that regional countries were unable to overcome problems in the area without international and regional cooperation.
"GCC countries have proven, through discussion of issues over two days, that they are regionally active and influential players," she said. "The second debate will be held in 2015 and I hope we won't see any new 'hotspots' appearing in the region."
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