The withdrawal of the Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors from Qatar did not surprise many. The relationship between the Emirati-Saudi axis and Qatar had been rife with tension and mistrust, especially after the beginning of the Arab uprisings and the fall of a number of countries' regimes, in particular that of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a traditional ally of the Saudis and Emiratis.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia share the same concerns about internal threats to their stability. These concerns form the bases for their foreign policies, and the main reason for their disagreement with Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. The dispute with the latter two, however, is not as intense as the one with Qatar.

Since the 1990s, Saudi Arabia has been waging a fight against Islamist movements and all their offshoots, the latest of which being the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State for Iraq and al-Sham as terrorist organizations.

While Saudi Arabia mostly succeeded in eradicating violent factions, al-Qaeda and the jihadist movement remained strong along its border with Yemen as they continued to gain strength in Syria. Further complicating matters was the emergence of the nonviolent social Islamist movement, which gained importance as its counterparts came to prominence in some Arab countries as a result of the Arab Spring revolutions.