Humanitarian policy of the Gulf States

En bref 17-05-2016

At a times of rising global terrorist threats and humanitarian crises affecting the region, the prosperous oil-producing monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – have come under sustained criticism for their policy towards asylum-seekers, their support to Syrian rebels, including jihadists, and their alleged laxity towards private financing of terrorism. Although the huge increase in their humanitarian spending has been interpreted by a number of commentators as a means to counter those criticisms, it seems also to be part of a longer-term foreign policy strategy.