The Coronavirus Crisis and the Arab-Arab Relations

When the Arab Region was hit by the coronavirus crisis, it had already been experiencing a violent conflict between the regional powers related to the Gulf crisis with Qatar; four Arab countries had cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, and cut off the land, sea and air routes since 2017. This was preceded with bitter conflicts between Arab peoples and their totalitarian regimes through the first wave of the Arab Spring in 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Morocco. A second wave of the Arab Spring broke in 2018 and 2019 in Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Algeria. These conflicts exhausted many Arab countries, leaving them almost totally engaged at handling their domestic affairs. On the other hand, there are certain objective facts that are common between these countries—the intense waves of labor migration and tourism movement, and common historical and political ties that remain strong.