VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Last Wednesday (25/11), two Bahraini ships were accused of violating Qatari waters and causing protests from the country. While the Bahraini party considers that its ships have been intercepted and treated improperly by Bahrain.

The claims and expressions of both Qatar and Bahrain cannot be separated from the tensions that have occurred between the Gulf countries recently. There is even a concern that the incident at sea will worsen the situation. Qatar, which since 2017 has been boycotted by Arab countries due to its closeness to   Iran, seems to yet have to wait for diplomatic relations with these countries to improve. The signal of peace actually appeared after the signing of normalization of relations with Israel by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain facilitated by the United States. On one hand, Qatar, which decided to support Palestine, hopes to close its tenuous relationship with Saudi Arabia, which also supports Palestine. The situation is complicated because on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is known to have strong economic and investment ties with the United States. Qatar itself hopes that the boycott it has felt since 2017 can end sooner.

But with the incident of the Bahraini ships being accused of illegally entering Qatar, it seems that the communication of the Gulf countries is not yet harmonious. The suspicions and worries are still quite strong. Seven Arab countries, namely Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had all been hit hard on the economy due to the Covid19 pandemic. However, with the increase in non-oil income, these countries, especially Saudi Arabia, have become more stable at this time.

Of course, the cohesiveness of fellow countries is needed to get through the crisis due to the pandemic and diplomatic relations with parties outside this group, whether it's Iran, or the United States. Unfortunately, with the incident of the Bahraini ships being accused of entering Qatar's territory, it seems that tensions between the Gulf countries will not end soon.