In mid-July, The Wall Street Journal reported that earlier in December, the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (known as MbS), had told a group of Saudi journalists that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has “stabbed us in the back” and had threatened, “They will see what I can do.” He had added that his retaliation would be “worse than what I did with Qatar”, recalling the harsh four-year political and economic blockade of the kingdom’s neighbour from 2017.
The Crown Prince was possibly irked by the absence of the UAE ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ), for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit meeting with the visiting Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
