Gulf nations restore full ties with Qatar

Full ties have been restored between Qatar and the Gulf nations, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on January 5, 2021.

“What happened today is the turning of the page on all points of difference and a full return of diplomatic relations,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a press conference at the conclusion of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia.

Leaders of the six-member GCC signed two documents on Tuesday, the Al Ula Declaration, named after the Saudi city where this year’s regional summit was held, and a final communique.

Saudi Arabia had led a coalition of countries in the Gulf and beyond to cut ties and transport links with Qatar in June 2017, after it was seen to be backing radical groups.

Those countries, along with Oman and Kuwait which have mediated between the two sides, signed the rapprochement deal, after Riyadh re-opened its land, sea and air borders to Doha.

“There is a desperate need today to unite our efforts to promote our region and to confront challenges that surround us, especially the threats posed by the Iranian regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme and its plans for sabotage and destruction,” said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The Al Ula agreement signed at this blessed summit confirms Gulf, Arab and Islamic unity and stability” the Crown Prince said.

The Al Ula Declaration “affirms our Gulf, Arab and Islamic solidarity and stability,” he told the meeting.
But the warm welcome Prince Mohammed extended to Qatar’s Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with the pair embracing at the airport and then chatting animatedly, indicates a significant breakthrough.

Sheikh Tamim, visiting Saudi for the first time since the crisis began, was taken with the other leaders through Al Ula’s dramatic Martian landscape to the shimmering Maraya Concert Hall, a mirrored structure situated in a nearby valley.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser who shuttled around the region to seek a deal, attended the signing ceremony at Al Ula.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said the summit had brought unity to the region.

“The changes and challenges surrounding us require strength, cohesion and real Gulf cooperation,” he tweeted.

Saudi state media said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met separately with Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, after the pair publicly embraced at the airport.

“During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways of consolidating the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) joint action,” the official Saudi Press Agency said.