After the signing of a document by leaders at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia, the Emer off Qatar embraced the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as he arrived in Saudi Arabia for a summit aimed at resolving the rift.

It's the first time that Shaykh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani has taken part in a GCC summit since Saudi Arabia, the U.

A.

E and Bahrain imposed an embargo on his country in 2017 over accusations of supporting terrorism, which Qatar has denied.

Our Middle East business correspondent, Samir Hush Me, is watching the developments now.

This is the 41st GCC summit, but clearly one of the most significant ones in recent years.

And that was quite evident when Bashar al Thani was embraced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, The de facto head off Saudi Arabia when he arrived in ULA to attend the GCC summit on the pictures are quite significant.

Also, given the bitter rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar or the last 3.5 years now, this deal has not happened overnight.

Both sides have been talking to each other for more than a year now.

The Trump administration was involved.

But so where the Kuwaitis, who have played a key role and they were encouraged by the United States government to make sure that this deal works out.

Of course, over the last few months, Jared Kushner, the senior adviser, uh in the White House, also was involved to make sure that this deal does go through.

Now, why does this deal happen right now?

Of course, a lot of credit has been given to the Trump administration.

But the other important factor is that the Saudis wanted to demonstrate to Joe Biden, who won the election in November, that his government, the Saudi regime, rather is willing to negotiate because most analysts expect that the Joe Biden administration will adopt a much tougher stance against us all these compared to the Trump administration.

And by striking this deal, the Saudi's wanted to show the Biden administration that they're not holding on to their rigid position, but they are willing to negotiate wherever it's possible.

But the other interesting fact are factor to watch out for is that the other three countries that were part off this Saudi alliance.

The Egypt and Bahrain are not very happy with this deal.

Of course, publicly, they're welcomed it.

But they were reluctant because of the trust deficit between both the sides on.

The Saudis have already announced that they would be opening up the borders, but we still haven't heard anything with regards to that from these three countries.

So that's something to watch out for whether this deal will be only between Saudi Arabia and Qatar or with the other three countries, which is Egypt.

The on Bahrain will also implemented in its full spirit, Samir Hashmi reporting there.