The Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday had been choreographed for weeks. Six heads of state, a single communique, an image of Arab unity in the face of an Iranian blockade entering its third month: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain arrived with pre-cleared talking points on the collective defense of the Arabian Peninsula. The United Arab Emirates arrived with a different script. Before the closing statement could be drafted, the Emirati delegation announced that effective May 1, after fifty-nine years of membership, the country would leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its expanded alliance, OPEC+, the coordinated framework that has bound Riyadh, Moscow, and Abu Dhabi to a shared production discipline since 2016.
Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei described the move, in a measured statement read on Emirati state television, as “a sovereign national decision aligned with our evolving energy profile.” West Texas Intermediate crossed one hundred dollars a barrel within the hour, the first triple-digit print since April 10.
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