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Maneesh Bakshi
Doha
The economic cost of the Gulf crisis will be much greater for the countries imposing a blockade on Qatar than Doha in the long run, Nader Kabbani of Brookings Centre Doha has said.
Speaking on the topic of economic implications of Gulf crisis in Doha on Monday, Kabbani said,"The crisis is costly for all the parties. However, Qatar by virtue of its natural resources and a healthy sovereign fund has a potential to withstand the economic pressure even if it continues for a longer time."
He said,"Qatari businessmen have found alternatives to the old supply chains and benefited from competitive prices offered by the new suppliers from Turkey, Iran, Oman and others, which will improve Qatar's economy in the long run."
He said it's easy to understand the history as we know how blockade imposed on Iran had made it a stronger country.
"The economic cost of the blockade for Qatar maybe be a small part of what the neighbouring coalition countries will face in the long term, running into billions of dollars. Then the pertinent question will be as to who is benefiting from this crisis? And the obvious answer would be nobody," he said.
Kabbani said,"It is very much in the interest of the whole of GCC, not only in terms of economic but also security wise, to make urgent efforts to find a solution to the crisis."
He said,"Countries taking a neutral stand on the crisis such as Oman, Kuwait in the Gulf region as well as Turkey, Iran and Iraq will certainly stand to gain out of this crisis by snatching away the market share from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, which ultimately will be the losers in the long run."
Kabbani said in the given scenario when the oil prices are already low it makes little sense to prolong another political crisis.
