Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE project ‘convening power’ as global conflict mediators

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While recently acting as a middleman between Washington and Tehran, Qatar employed its “deep-seated trust and influence with Washington” to extract concessions, helping it to keep Iran “at bay”, said Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of defence studies at King’s College London.

The UAE, on the other hand, had supported different actors in conflicts, including civil wars in Libya, Sudan and Yemen, and used this leverage to gain concessions not just from warring parties but also from the international community, he said.

In doing so, Krieg said the Gulf monarchies had “weaponised interdependence” to grow their standing as middle powers while decreasing their risks of being dragged into conflicts that would threaten their national security – such as between Iran and the US.

Rather than being “on the receiving end” of great power competition, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar “see themselves as becoming essential shapers” in a global environment that was increasingly about competition between the global north and south, as well as west versus east, he said.

The Gulf states “are like little keys that fit different locks” on mediation, Krieg said. “Depending on what the conflict at hand is, you can use one Gulf state or the other to unlock a particular problem, which is what mediation is all about.”

Period	26 Feb 2025
Held at	South China Morning Post, Hong Kong