In accordance with its ratification provision, the agreement entered into force on 27 December 2013, 30 days after the fourth country, Bahrain, ratified the agreement. As of 14 January 2014, five of the six GCC countries had ratified the agreement. On 3 April, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Kuwaiti Parliament rejected the agreement, with three of the five MEPs saying it was contrary to the Kuwaiti constitution. However, the Kuwaiti authorities are urging Parliament to ratify the agreement before the end of the year. But this failure to include treaties in the UN Charter could be a dead letter. Scientists have observed that respect has always been patchy, and the lack of registration of an international agreement has not prevented the ICC from imposing a case of maritime border and Qatar`s island sovereignty against Bahrain. Neither Qatar nor the Quartet addressed this issue in their submissions to the ICJ; Saudi Arabia may have registered the treaties with a plethora of caution since then rather than a sense of necessity. Secret treaties, such as the Riyadh Agreements, not only do not violate international law in practice, but may even be appropriate for reasons of internal and external security. The lack of dispute resolution mechanisms between Member States in the event of a relative disagreement could also have a negative impact on the GCC and hinder its development and growth. In addition, no institutional activities or structures have yet been put in place to respond to the implementation of the resolutions adopted at the GCC summits. Similarly, apart from the whims of its leaders, no court, structure or policy governs the activities of the GCC in any way. In addition, there is no common system, laws, regulations, institutions, policies or mechanisms that ensure that GCC citizens have a say and that their voices are heard.
Finally, on 16 November 2014, the six GCC heads of state signed the third Riyadh agreement (also known as the Riyadh Complementary Agreement). The third agreement confirmed the material provisions of the first two agreements and added two other important principles. First, it “emphasizes that the non-commitment of one of the articles of the Riyadh Agreement and its executive mechanism constitutes a violation of all of them.” Second, the clarity and maturity of GCC countries in the context of the 2014 crisis is of great importance. There is no doubt that this maturity – if confirmed by continued consolidation at the levels of citizenship, trade, education, research, culture, kinship, geographic proximity and common history – has the potential to strengthen the concept of integration and unite the GCC`s interests and foreign policy positions. ________
