Among the discord on display:

• The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani did not attend the meeting. Instead, the country sent a relatively junior foreign minister, the minister of state for foreign affairs, to the meeting. The country has been the target of a nearly two-year diplomatic, economic, and political boycott by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah called on all countries involved in the ongoing dispute to find a way to put an end to the conflict, starting with incendiary charges made in international media. Among the more recent actions, Qatar last week said that it would be leaving the oil cartel OPEC.
• Saudi Arabia has taken a side in the ongoing civil war in neighboring Yemen, angering Qatar and other nearby nations. Initial peace talks in that dispute have commenced.
• It is also unclear to many in the international community how involved the Saudi establishment was in the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was a regular critic of Saudi King Salman and his government.