Saudi Arabia decides to reopen its borders with Qatar

The Emir of Qatar, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, in January last year in Iran, DPA via Europa Press / Europa Press

Saudi Arabia plans to reopen its borders with Qatar this Monday, in a first step towards solving the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, which for three and a half years has isolated Doha.

As soon as the gesture was announced by the Foreign Minister of Kuwait, Ahmad Naser al Sabah, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani, has confirmed his attendance tomorrow Tuesday at the annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi city of Al Ula, where the closure of the conflict is expected to be announced.

"An agreement has been reached to reopen the airspace and the land and sea borders between Saudi Arabia and Qatar this very evening," Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Naser al Sabah said on state television.

Since the beginning of the crisis in June 2017, Kuwait has mediated between Doha and the drivers of its isolation, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), seconded by Bahrain and Egypt.

These four countries accused Qatar of Islamist sympathies, support for terrorism and collusion with Iran, something that Qatari leaders have always rejected, while at the same time ascribing the embargo to an attempt to limit their sovereignty.

سمو الأمير يترأس وفد الدولة في القمة الخليجية ال ٤١ ،

حفظك الله ورعاك في حلك وترحالك pic.twitter.com/vdYXuX6Umy

- أحمد بن سعيد الرميحي (@aromaihi) January 4, 2021

"His Excellency the Emir leads the country's delegation to the 41st GCC summit," the Information Director of the Qatari Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Bin Said, announced on his Twitter account shortly after the Kuwaiti announcement.

It will be the first time that Sheikh Tamim has attended that meeting since his country was the object of the blockade.

The GCC is made up of the six monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Oman);

only Kuwait and Oman have remained neutral in the diplomatic conflict.

The informative website Doha News assures, for its part, that the Qatari border with Saudi Arabia, the only land connection of that small country, was preparing its opening.

Doha, for its part, is going to abandon its lawsuits against the countries that boycotted it.

Sheikh Ahmad has also advanced the signing of a declaration between the parties during the GCC summit, pending since last December and whose celebration was moved from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia apparently with the aim of closing the diplomatic crisis.

Shortly after the Kuwaiti announcement, the heir and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohamed Bin Salmán declared that the leaders of the Gulf will close ranks in their meeting "in the face of the challenges facing the region," according to the state agency. news SPA.

It remains to be seen how the United Arab Emirates will react, which is credited with being more cold towards normalization with Doha and whose reluctance has already stopped an attempt at reconciliation in 2019.

In another sign that tomorrow the end of the crisis may be made official, sources in the Trump Administration have said that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, will attend the signing ceremony in Al Ula.

The end of the scuffle between these countries allied to the United States was also one of the objectives of Washington, which saw the division as an obstacle in its policy of containing Iran.