Interest-based processes used by Qatar in response to the siege

Abstract

This chapter describes the interest-based processes Qatar has used in response to the actions the blockading countries - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt - took on June 5, 2017 to isolate Qatar by closing certain land, sea, and marine routes. It describes Qatar's consistent call to use negotiation and dialogue to end the blockade; its ongoing use of diplomacy to build international support; Qatar's hope that the Kuwaitisponsored mediation or the dispute resolution processes of the Gulf Cooperation Council would bring the parties to the negotiation table; its effort to change the narrative about Qatar's support and financing for terrorism; and its successful efforts to build a closer relationship with the Trump administration in the United States. In addition, it analyzes why the parties have not yet successfully engaged in interestbased processes that could lead to a resolution of the dispute. It considers the stalled Kuwaiti mediation, the impotence of the constitution of the Gulf Cooperation Council to prevent three member states from turning on a fourth state, and the mixed signals of the Trump administration that have prolonged the blockade and undermined President Donald Trump's role as an impartial peacemaker. It concludes that Qatar can enter negotiations without losing face, has avoided escalatory moves that could have made negotiations more difficult, has the resources to use interest-based processes, but must deal with long-standing tensions and distrust between the parties in any upcoming negotiation. At the same time, the parties need more clarity about their essential interests that any successful negotiation must meet. They also must fashion options, actions, and responses that Qatar can and wants to adopt to meet the interests of the blockading countries.