Saudi King Salman begins Persian Gulf tour
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has begun a tour of Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf region, arriving in the United Arab Emirates as his first stop.
The tour, which started on Saturday, will also see King Salman in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The visit to neighboring allies in the Persian Gulf region is Salman’s first since he took power in January 2015. The countries he is visiting are part of the six-member [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council, a Saudi-dominated bloc that also includes Oman.
Oman’s omission from Salman’s list of destinations comes as the government in Muscat keeps opposing Riyadh’s policies in the region, including the kingdom’s efforts to establish a more formal union among the member states, which could give the Saudis more influence on regional issues.
Oman has also rejected to participate in Riyadh's intensifying campaign against Yemen. The governments of the UAE and Bahrain have contributed to the deadly military aggression, which was launched in March 2015 and has left some 10,000 Yemenis and dozens of soldiers from the two Saudi allies killed.
The UAE, a federation of small emirates known for their oil and commerce-generated wealth, has served as the most reliable partner for Salman’s influence-seeking drive in the Middle East and North Africa. UAE officials actively supported the overthrow of a democratically-elected government in Egypt in 2013 and then, like the Saudis, supported the rise of Egypt's army generals to power a year later.
Salman would arrive in Bahrain in the third stop of his tour as the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom witnesses anti-regime protests on an almost daily basis. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds have been imprisoned since the demonstrations began in Bahrain in early 2011.
Saudi Arabia dispatched troops and tanks to Bahrain the same year to help the regime in Manama quash the uprising.
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