Some thoughts on the GCC as it stands. There are very real changes taking place which the Organisation now reflects. It is as far from unified as it has ever been, a congruence of broad interests by countries locked culturally economically and geographically. But that's about it.

There is an inescapable truth that we're all avoiding, which is that each of the six countries has reacted to the Arab uprisings of ten years ago in very different ways, some engaged (KSA, Qatar, UAE) while others ducked out the way (Oman, Kuwait). Bahrain experienced it.

From that point it was inevitable we'd get to this point...a GCC of six countries all pursuing separate agendas and differing in their regional priorities. This isn't a good thing or a bad thing...it's just a thing. And the end of the Qatar dispute is a reflection of that reality

Yesterday was the GCC effectively readjusting to the fact that all six remain connected, forever. But their Foreign Policies and preferences will broadly remain separated, and continue in the pursuit of narrow self interest, albeit it with a greater sense of concerns around them.

The world order is changing, the US isn't the power it once was. The Arab Spring shook up a decades old system that no longer worked. OF COURSE these rich, secure countries were going to differ in their approaches to it. It was foolish to expect unity, and wrong to enforce it.

The GCC took ten years to catch up to the fact. But it seems we're now there. I for one welcome a return to some sort of normality, but with these states slightly chastened. Let's hope the first step towards better more prosperous times.