Saudi Arabia reopens airspace and borders in Qatar
A view of Doha the capital of Qatar in May 2018 (illustrative image).
AP - Kamran Jebreili
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Saudi Arabia reopens its airspace and its land and sea borders in Qatar on Monday, January 4, after more than three years of severance of diplomatic ties between the two Gulf countries.
The news was announced by the Kuwaiti Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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Based on a proposal from the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, it was agreed to open the air space as well as the land and sea borders between Saudi Arabia and Qatar as of this evening
”Monday, announced Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Sabah in a televised statement, without further specifying the time.
The announcement comes on the eve of a much-anticipated summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in Saudi Arabia, during which a reconciliation could be sealed between Riyadh - as well as several other countries - and Qatar.
The Saudi kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt
broke off diplomatic relations with Qatar in June 2017
, accusing it of supporting the Islamists, of connivance with Iran or of causing trouble in the region.
The rich and ambitious gas emirate has always denied and denounced the "blockade" of which he claims to be a victim.
Kuwait, mediator in the Gulf crisis
The Kuwaiti foreign minister added that the Emir of Kuwait, who acts as a mediator in the Gulf crisis, had spoken by telephone with the Saudi and Qatari leaders.
The latter called for "
unity
" of the Gulf countries at the summit on Tuesday, he said.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, was officially invited to the summit as in previous years, but he had never attended.
But shortly after the announcement of the Kuwaiti minister, a statement from the office of the Qatari Emir announced that he would be present this time, a promising sign of reconciliation.
"
The emir will participate in the meeting of the GCC to be held on Tuesday in the province of Al-Ula in the brother kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
" the statement said.
► To read also: Rupture of Saudi Arabia and its allies with Qatar: what consequences?
The United States, anxious to unify the Arab countries against Iran, lobbied to reconcile the cold countries in the Gulf, all of them strategic partners of Washington.
(With
AFP
)
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