Middle East Rivalries Cool as the Region’s Political and Economic Outlook Shifts - Bloomberg

Middle East Rivalries Cool as the Region’s Political and Economic Outlook Shifts - Bloomberg

In a part of the world where stability and predictability are elusive, 2021 ended much the way it started: with surprise reconciliations among regional rivals and the prospect of more.

In January 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman invited Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatari emir, to a Gulf summit, where they signed an agreement ending the three-year-plus boycott of Qatar that the kingdom had led.

Ten months later, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met in Syria with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was until recently a pariah in most of the Arab world. Syria had been suspended from the Arab League in 2011 because of the Assad regime’s violent crackdown on a popular uprising, a conflict that later escalated into a civil war. The UAE-Syria meeting in November signaled the possibility of a normalization of Syria’s regional ties at the upcoming Arab League summit, to take place in Algeria in March.

Also in November the UAE’s de facto ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, paid a visit to Turkey, launching a $10 billion fund to invest in the country and ending a decade of strained relations.