Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — The Gulf Cooperation Council could collapse amid its crisis with Qatar, a report said.

The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies asserted that Saudi Arabia could lose its domination of the six-member GCC. In a report, the center said Riyad faced significant opposition to its policies from Oman and Qatar.

“The days of the GCC, long dominated by Saudi Arabia, may be numbered,” the report, titled “Is the GCC in Peril,” said.

Research fellow Joshua Teitelbaum cited the decision by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to withdraw their ambassadors from Qatar, a leading supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, in March 2014.

“Founded in 1981 as a response to the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, the GCC has always been dominated by Saudi Arabia. … Flush with cash from the North Dome/South Pars gas field, the largest gas field in the world (which it shares with Iran), tiny Qatar put itself on the map with its freewheeling Al Jazeera channel, founded in 1996. Al Jazeera has always been a pointy thorn in the Saudi side. Qatar’s … continued good relations with Iran, and Doha’s funding of competing Syrian rebel factions were all perceived as affronts by Saudi Arabia,” the report said.

He said Saudi Arabia wants to change the GCC by recruiting such non-regional states as Jordan and Morocco.

“Although it is still too early to begin preparing a eulogy for the GCC, it is unclear whether the organization will be able to weather this latest crisis,” the report said.

The report said the split within the GCC would hamper plans for a unified military command and police force. Teitelbaum also doubted whether the United States would succeed in selling weapons to the GCC as a block rather than individual states.

“Nevertheless, Qatar is unlikely to buckle under to Saudi pressure,” the report said.

“The latest move by the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia puts another nail in the coffin of this moribund organization, although the actual burial may still be some time off.”

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