How the Middle East kingdoms escaped from the Arab Spring

The Washington Post published lately a report explaining how the Middle East kingdoms escaped from the Arab Spring.

The report said that Emiratis and people from Gulf countries had demands for political change just like people from the Arab Spring countries.

It also noted on a second level that the relations between the Arab kingdoms have seen a rise especially during the Arab Spring, in an attempt of these kingdoms to protect themselves from the revolutionary forces that called for the overthrow of tyrants in the Middle East. In fact, the report pointed out that authoritarian states can get together and exchange ideas, circulate strategies, and stick to the collective identity as to fake being a democracy.

In reaction to the revolutionary waves, the different authoritarian regimes including the UAE responded en masse. These responses have appeared in domestic and foreign policy alike, in new forms of oppression and sectarianism, suppression of the media and expansion of the countries cooperation.

Since 2012, there have been dozens of cases of cross-border police practices. For instance, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood official Zaki bin Arshid was sentenced to a year of prison after publishing criticism of the United Arab Emirates on Facebook. In Kuwait, parliamentarians who criticized the policies of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE were arrested.

According to the mentioned report, these practices were the fruits of an agreement made in November 2012 between the kingdoms of the Gulf, but which was also ratified by Morocco and Jordan. The agreement calls on the joint signatories to repress any citizen who threatens the internal affairs of other kingdoms.