Speaking with The National, AGSIW President Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba commented on U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent trip to the Gulf: “The message to Qatar has to be very clear which it has not been so far, that Doha has to change lot of things, it can’t be a sanctuary for individuals on both UN and US designated terrorist lists, and it cannot provide Al Jazeera Arabic as a platform for hate speech and extremists’ voices.” She continued that the United States “cannot continue with this crisis and have it escalate to the point where regional stability is at stake and the fight against ISIL is undermined.”

She also noted: “A US secretary of state doesn’t go to the region for days and shuttle between capitals unless it’s an urgent situation”, making the point that the U.S. is now very focused on the GCC dispute. She also said that waiting six weeks after the crisis to visit the region is a lapse in U.S. diplomacy: “In the Middle East, when you have a conflict with strong narratives on both sides, people take positions that they later have a hard time compromising.” She continued to say that the wait was in order to give Kuwait more time in its mediation efforts, stating that “until you are actively on the ground, going to meet with those leaders, it is not the same message.”

AGSIW Senior Resident Scholar Karen E. Young spoke to Sky News about the GCC crisis noting that the United States, United Kingdom and Europe are paying more attention to the crisis as it drags on. She continued to comment on the claims by Saudi Arabia and its allies: “A lot of disagreements go back for some time … The claim, now, that Qatar did not change behavior over the past few years is difficult to verify because we don’t know what the conditions were.”