RIYADH: The GCC bloc has agreed on the mechanisms to implement a security pact, marking a possible first step toward bridging deep rifts among its six member states.

Qatar’s official news agency confirmed that Doha’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah took part in the GCC Foreign Ministers meeting held in Riyadh. The GCC statement was released just before midnight after the meeting concluded.

It marked the foreign minister’s first visit to Saudi Arabia since the Kingdom, along with the UAE and Bahrain, withdrew its ambassadors from Qatar in an unprecedented public protest against Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood group in the region.

A statement said the GCC agreed on a “collective framework” in which the policies of the bloc’s member states “would not affect the interests, security and stability of its members and would not tamper with the sovereignty of any of its members.”

However, the statement did not say whether ambassadors would be reinstated. Kuwait and Oman were the only countries in the council not to join in the diplomatic protest. Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi was quoted in Al-Hayat newspaper declaring that the crisis “between brothers” had ended and was “a thing of the past.”

“The ball is now in Qatar’s camp,” former Saudi diplomat Abdullah Al-Shammari told AFP.

Emirati political science professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said Qatar has already implemented part of the deal by asking several Emirati and Saudi Muslim Brotherhood opposition figures in Doha to leave, and will soon expel more foreign radicals.

Qatar on Thursday agreed to tone down Al-Jazeera but “this will be gradual,” Abdulla said.

The Saudis had also demanded that Qatar end its alleged support for Yemen’s Huthi rebels along the Kingdom’s southern border.

“We are yet to see” if Qatar will implement this part of the agreement, Abdulla said.

Mohammad Al-Musfer, political science professor at the University of Qatar, insists that Doha’s “foreign policy will not change, regardless of the circumstances.”