Whatever happened during GCC forum in Saudi Arabia?

[jose chalhoub + 388]

Another summit took place of a bloc that was supposed to be a very strategic one with decisions to be solidly considered and heard especially regarding oil markets, and especially in turbulent times the Gulf region is living, this time taking place in Saudi Arabia, a country itself facing important amounts of tensions internally and regarding its foreign policy in the region.

But nothing relevant came out of this aside from the critics from Bahrain towards the non attendance of Qatar and the repeated speeches and pictures showing something or a unity that does not exist at all in the Gulf. As with OPEC a bloc led by Saudi Arabia or at the mercy of Saudi Arabia, now without the power of influence in global oil markets as it used to have once, now the GCC has become irrelevant and at the mercy of internal divisions and fractures provoked by Saudi Arabia substantially. GCC summit in Riyadh

[Linc Offshore 0]

The Gulf Countries need to look at their Budget revenues, crude oil price economy is taking a serious beating from the the market struggles with shale drillers, shale technology even helps the shale drillers, the production cuts just allowing shale producers to boom, more production cuts to prop prices does not help the Gulf Countries...

America's trade war with China, is a war about who own the world market for manufactured goods, as America reduces China's export market for its manufactured goods, China would buy less oil from the Gulf countries.

Upheavals in the Gulf countries would not bring the Islamists to power, rather i see semi-secular democratic forces rising to prominence in the Middle East, Monarchies would only be titular like Great Britain.

I see so many Gulf Countries before the end of 2019, going the way of the United Kingdom, with Parliamentary Monarchy, and culturally conservative..most of the leaders gathered at the GCC, would share their power with parliaments before the end of 2019 - 2020.

 

 

[John Foote + 1,135]

On 12/11/2018 at 6:59 AM, Linc Offshore said:

I see so many Gulf Countries before the end of 2019, going the way of the United Kingdom, with Parliamentary Monarchy, and culturally conservative..most of the leaders gathered at the GCC, would share their power with parliaments before the end of 2019 - 2020.

What possible reason would almost absolute power want to dilute it? Far more likely to go the other way, departing from benevolent authoritarians to brutal ones to retain power. There isn't a magna carter in the DNA of the region. There isn't anything vaguely resembling a free press. A Sharia Council doesn't really emulate a western style parliament. 

The people of Bahrain are quite different than the Saudis, but the government itself is practically a satellite of Riyadh. The response to the Arab Spring in Bahrain tells you what you need to know about the notion of a parliament. KSA and UAE are mostly in lock step, but MbS fails to recognize the UAE model works with an ext pat workforce, and MbS needs to get away from an expat workforce. 

Something will give in the next ten years. Current trends are not sustainable.

[NickW + 2,714]

1 hour ago, John Foote said:

What possible reason would almost absolute power want to dilute it? Far more likely to go the other way, departing from benevolent authoritarians to brutal ones to retain power. There isn't a magna carter in the DNA of the region. There isn't anything vaguely resembling a free press. A Sharia Council doesn't really emulate a western style parliament. 

The people of Bahrain are quite different than the Saudis, but the government itself is practically a satellite of Riyadh. The response to the Arab Spring in Bahrain tells you what you need to know about the notion of a parliament. KSA and UAE are mostly in lock step, but MbS fails to recognize the UAE model works with an ext pat workforce, and MbS needs to get away from an expat workforce. 

Something will give in the next ten years. Current trends are not sustainable.

Quite. MBS is hardly showing any indications that he sees KSA's future as a Parliamentary democracy