Qatar called Saturday for a new regional alliance following the failure of the four-decade-old Gulf Cooperation Council to resolve an 18-month rift between the emirate and its neighbours. Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the boycott imposed on the emirate by Saudi Arabia and its allies had irreparably damaged the existing six-nation structure set up at the height of the Iran-Iraq war in 1981. “The regional alliance has been undermined by the crisis,” Sheikh Mohammed told policymakers at the two-day Doha Forum.
