The Muslim Brotherhood group and its international organization have become in a big trouble following the finalization of the Riyadh Agreement, in which Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States have urged Qatar to stop its media and financial support for the Islamist group. Some observers see the agreement as a new nail in the Muslim Brotherhood's coffin and a step that would thwart the group's international plans as it looks for a new sanctuary. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. On 17 April, GCC foreign ministers clinched a deal to end months of unprecedented tension between Qatar and three other member states - Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain. They agreed that the policies of GCC member states should not undermine the "interests, security and stability" of each other. Such policies must also not affect the "sovereignty" of a member state. The three GCC states recalled their ambassadors from Qatar last month, March 2014, accusing it of meddling in their internal affairs and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar has been an outspoken supporter of Mohammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leading figure who was ousted by the military as Egypt's president last July following nationwide protests against his one-year rule and now faces serious charges in prison. In an initiative appearing to show Qatar's willingness to reach a solution to its crisis with Gulf states, Qatari sources revealed to leading Arabic newspapers in recent days that orders have been given to several Muslim Brotherhood members not to speak to the media. Among those figures are Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose controversial statements and sermons have been widely viewed as hostile to Egypt. According to sources close to the Muslim Brotherhood group as well as political experts, the Riyadh Agreement will have a significant effect on the group's leaders, who will seek to create footholds elsewhere. They suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood might find sanctuary in Turkey, Libya or Malaysia, stressing that the group will continue to lose support as long as it adopts terrorism. Yusri al-Izbawi, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, said that Qatar would be forced to stop its support for the Muslim Brotherhood group in the coming period in order to restore its relations with the Arab Gulf countries. He pointed out that such a step would have a significant moral and material effect on the group and its international organization. He added that Qatar was the group's staunchest ally and biggest diplomatic and financial supporter, pointing out that the group would not give up looking for an alternative. For his part, former undersecretary of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service Usamah Hammam expected that Libya would be the destination of Muslim Brotherhood leaders who would leave Qatar as a result of the Riyadh Agreement. He added that the volatile security situation in Libya would make it unlikely for these leaders to be prosecuted. Hammam said that the imminent deportation of Brotherhood leaders from Qatar does not necessarily mean that Qatar's support for the organization would come to an end. He also noted that the leaders' stay in Libya would enable them to follow up the so-called "Free Egyptian Army." Political expert Samih Rashid said that the Riyadh Agreement obliged Qatar to stop its support for the Muslim Brotherhood group and that it would have a significant impact on the group's presence in the region and would add more pressure on it. He said that Qatar would probably circumvent the agreement by applying part of it and temporizing over the other part in a way that would serve its interests. He added that Qatar would put restrictions on the Islamist leaders living within its borders and deport some of them. Rashid also expected that Qatar would not take any final decision regarding Al-Jazeera TV's criticism of Egypt, noting that there were signs of calm on the part of Al-Jazeera; however, the criticism and incitement would not stop overnight.
