Officials in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey are among the first to welcome the move to reopen borders with Qatar.
Saudi Arabia has reopened its land border with Qatar and Kuwait’s foreign minister has said that the airfield and maritime border will open up the kingdom, too, ahead of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) conference is set to take place in Saudi Al-Ula region on Tuesday.
The news on Monday could pave the way for a political controversy that forced Riyadh and its allies to boycott Qatar more than three years ago.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt launched a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott of Qatar in June 2017, accusing Doha of supporting “terrorism” and maintaining ties with Iran. seeing too close to.
Qatar has repeatedly denied the allegations and said there was no “legitimate justification” for relationship separation.
The border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is officially open #Qatar pic.twitter.com/9z2x9hcbty
– sorin furcoi (@furcoisorin) January 4, 2021
On Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de-facto governor Mohammed bin Salman said the GCC summit would be “inclusive”, leading the states towards “reunification and loyalty in the pursuit of ‘tackling the challenges of our region “.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, described the upcoming summit as “historic”.
“We will stand before a historic summit in Al-Ula, through which we restore the coherence of our Gulf and ensure that security, sustainability and prosperity are our top priorities. , “he said on Twitter.” We have more work ahead of us and we are on the right track. “
Nayef Mubarak Al-Hajraf, general secretary of the six-member GCC, also welcomed the move.
“As a result of the move, which precedes the 41st GCC summit in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, there has been a great deal of interest and sincere efforts to ensure the success of the summit, which is being held in line with amazing situation, “Al-Hajraf said.
Turkey also “welcomed” the decision, his foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “an important step in resolving the dispute”.
The ministry praised the efforts of Kuwait and other international players to end the crisis.
“It is our desire that this dispute be resolved fully and permanently on the basis of respect for the sovereignty of nations and that other sanctions against the people of Qatar be lifted as soon as possible,” the statement said.