The cold war in the desert has lingered, although Qatar still supplies the UAE with gas.

As new axes emerge, Qatar has increasingly tied itself to Turkey -- while straining relations between Riyadh and Ankara -- and extended its reach far beyond the Gulf.

Last month, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani thanked Iran for its support during the crisis.

"I don't think it is too far-fetched to say that new power centres in the Middle East are emerging," said David Roberts, assistant professor at King's College London.

Widely seen as a bid by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to bring to heel Qatar and its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the gamble has not paid off -- yet.

While their regional ambitions may have been overstretched, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have indicated this is a power-play for the long haul.

According to Le Monde newspaper, Saudi Arabia has written to French President Emmanuel Macron warning of "military action" if Qatar goes ahead with its planned purchase of a Russian air defence missile system.

Qatar is already picking up the tab, as it absorbs the huge costs of regional isolation, despite its vast wealth in gas resources.

"As for winners and losers, there are clearly no winners thus far, and in many ways everyone has been a loser," said Christopher Davidson, a Middle East politics professor at Durham University.

Ulrichsen said that despite its "resilience", Qatar has "not eliminated the costs of the crisis".

Without a clear winner in sight, the Gulf crisis is largely seen by the outside world as a bewildering spat between indistinguishable former allies.

Mediation efforts have been led by Kuwait and the US, which has its largest Middle East air base in Qatar.

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