Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined Arab leaders for yesterday’s Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha, the latest sign of warming ties between Turkey and our corner of the woods. Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman led the Saudi delegation.

The big outcomes of the gathering, per a a joint statement issued afterward:

#1- The summit renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and cheered Qatar, Egypt, and the United States for a ceasefire agreement brokered last week.

#2- Condemnation of Israel: GCC member states plus Turkey again condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and denounced recent statements by several Israeli politicians as racist and extremist. The summit also condemned the Israeli government’s arming of West Bank settlers.

#3- The council condemned Israel’s bid to assert sovereignty over East Jerusalem.

#4- Work in progress projects:

  • Unified tourist visa: Member states are still working on polishing a Shengen-style unified tourist visa that would allow tourists to enter the six member states using a single unified visa starting sometime between in 2024 or 2025;
  • Transforming into a union: There’s ongoing efforts to transition the GCC from just a cooperation bloc to a political union as agreed 12 years ago.

Wondering why someone wasn’t at COP28 on Tuesday? They were in Doha. The kingdom’s delegation included intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan, Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al Rumayyan, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman along with the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, finance, commerce, economy and planning, media, investment, sports.

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