I have said it before, if the sole achievement of the late King Abdullah were reconciliation between Gulf countries, ending alienation that enemies within and outside tried to increase, it would have really been a great mission accomplished.
He carried the flag of Gulf union and worked hard to achieve this unity, but one cannot fulfil all one’s wishes.
King Abdullah has passed away, but the dream of a Gulf union lives in people’s hearts. The presence of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, comforts our hearts as he reawakens this dream once again to make it a reality. He provides Gulf citizens a strength and a sense of empowerment.
Every day the people of the Gulf discover how close they are to a union, which everybody feels the need to have. All that is required is a political decision, which has not been taken yet.
Over the past few months we had anticipated bad news because of the crisis among GCC countries. But God decided to end this dark period, thanks to the blessed initiatives that King Abdullah played a great role in.
In the past we used to say that the Gulf faced threats from many regional groups, and it is still subject to plots and intrigues to realise what our enemies failed to achieve.
Today, talk of threats is old-fashioned as we are in a state of direct confrontation. Here I am speaking about Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
I am optimistic that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz will play a key role in reorganising the Gulf homeland; there are many reasons for this.
King Salman has dealt with many political issues before ascending the throne, so he is more capable than anyone else of identifying the threats that are being carried out, especially in Yemen.
We have already witnessed many failures on different issues and are still suffering the consequences thereof.
Our regimes let Iraq down, and the country is suffering a hateful invasion, where the Romans’ dirty work has been handed over to the Persians. Iraq is groaning from its injuries, if not already dead.
Lebanon, Syria and Yemen are examples of failures. Sana’a has fallen to the Houthis; God only knows where this atrocious failure will lead Yemen.
Obviously, there was no clear vision for setting priorities, which made us forget who our real enemy is.
This enemy is lurking around us all the time, and we suddenly find its allies roaming the presidential palace in Sana’a.
To me, what has happened in Yemen is like the shock one gets from a defibrillator. It is like kick-starting a heart that has stopped working.
I say this because facts tell us that any Houthi expansion outside Sana’a — backed by parties from Lebanon, Iraq and Syria and supported by parties in our countries — will cause instability in the rest of the Arab world.
The swift transition of political authority in Saudi Arabia and the effective political decisions taken by King Salman indicate that the Kingdom will not let go of its key role in handling many pending issues that require a completely different outlook.
Not only does Saudi Arabia need to renew its political discourse, so do the other Gulf countries.
When the White House spokesman declares that it is not clear whether Iran is leading and controlling the Houthis, then it is no surprise to see the temporary marriage between Washington and Tehran, whose outcome we are witnessing in Iraq and Syria — and we were about to have the same scenario in Bahrain, God forbid!
Most of the social, economic and political issues of the Gulf are more or less the same. All our states really need is to comprehend the nature of regional threats, which are gradually being carried out.
Time will not wait for the Gulf regimes to think about what they need to do, as the time to take decisions has already passed.
However, our states must realise what they have to do and try to recover whatever possible.
The author is a columnist and researcher
