For a brief moment, it looked like a 30 August meeting in Jiddah between senior GCC officials would lead to a resolution of the dispute between Qatar on one side and Saudi Arabia and its GCC allies on the other.

The Omani Foreign Minister, Yusif bin ‘Alawi bin ‘Abd Allah, hailed the achievements of the talk and said that Saudi, Bahraini and Emirati ambassadors will return to Doha: “The crisis has been resolved,” he told AFP, though he made no mention of when the diplomats would return to their posts. Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sabah Khalid Al Sabah was more guarded in his optimism: “It has been agreed to lay the foundation and the criteria to overcome the disagreements as soon as possible,” he told a press conference. (CONTINUED - 358 WORDS)