LONDON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia and its allies reached a breakthrough agreement with Qatar on Tuesday, ending three-and-a-half-year dead ends and restoring ties between Arab Gulf neighbors.
“We consider with great gratitude and appreciation the efforts to heal the breach,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom, said in a statement, without elaborating on the terms of the agreement. so-called Al-Ula agreement.
“In this regard, we also commend the kind efforts of the United States of America and all the parties that have contributed.”
In a joint statement, the leaders of member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday said that the Al-Ula agreement aims to strengthen unity and cohesion between members and ‘the return of the joint Gulf action to its normal course ‘.
Egypt, which is not part of the GCC, also signed the agreement.
Earlier on Tuesday, Qatari sergeant Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula, greeted with a hug from Mohammed bin Salman, in images broadcast live on Saudi TV.
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The agreement, mediated by Kuwait and the United States, among others, took place at an annual summit of Arab leaders in the Gulf, with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, special representative for international negotiations.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with the energy-rich Qatar in 2017, imposing a blockade that separated families and businesses and shattered the unity of the Gulf.
The quartet has accused Doha of supporting extremist groups in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, a charge he denies, pointing to Qatar’s close ties with its local enemy, Iran.
Crown Prince Salman explicitly called Iran’s “destabilizing” activities in the Middle East during the summit.
“Today, we are in dire need of uniting our efforts to advance our region and meet the challenges that surround us, especially the threats posed by the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile program and its destructive sabotage projects,” he said. he told fellow leaders.
Shortly after the announcement of Tuesday’s agreement, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted congratulations to Qatar for his ‘courageous resistance to pressure and extortion’.
“For our other Arab neighbors: Iran is no enemy or threat. Enough scapegoat – especially with your reckless patron on the way out,” he said. tweeted, in an apparent reference to President Donald Trump, who during his presidency maintained close ties with Saudi Arabia and Egypt while waging a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.
The feud has gripped the small monarchy of Qatar against its former allies and severed ties in the broader Middle East.
Qatar shares a massive foreign gas field with Iran and restores diplomatic ties with Tehran amid the dispute, which deepens the gap with the other countries.
Kuwait’s foreign minister Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah announced on Monday that Saudi Arabia would reopen its airspace and sea and land borders with Qatar – in the most public step to end the Doha boycott, which despite US calls continue. for a decision.
The breakthrough is the latest in a series of deals in the Middle East that Washington intends to build a united front against Iran.
This is likely to be a victory in the last days of Trump’s term. All the states are American allies. Qatar is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region, while Bahrain is the fifth fleet of the U.S. Navy, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates host U.S. troops.
“Today’s summit is very important,” said Noha Aboueldahab, fellow foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, a think tank. However, she warned: “it will take a very long time to build and regain trust.”
Aboueldahab told NBC News that Qatar and Saudi Arabia still had historical tensions and divergent views on foreign policy, playing in arenas such as Syria, Libya and Egypt.
She also said that praise for Kushner’s mediation efforts was ‘laughable’. In addition, he and Trump “were just as responsible for allowing this blockade to take place as the blocking countries themselves.”
Diplomats and analysts say Saudi Arabia is also campaigning for an end to the crisis to show President-elect Joe Biden that Riyadh is open to dialogue. Biden has vowed to take a tougher line with the kingdom over its human rights record and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The 2017 decision to sever ties with Qatar has strained relations in the typically united Arabian Gulf tremendously.
The four Arab countries have issued a list of 13 demands to welcome Qatar back into the fold. Among them are calls to close down its news agency Al-Jazeera, close a Turkish base and downgrade ties with Iran.
Qatar maintained the boycott was aimed at restricting its sovereignty and said any resolution should be based on mutual respect.
The affluent peninsula stands out above its weight on the world stage, which according to some analysts has frustrated the traditional regional domination of Saudi Arabia. Qatar is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, facilitating Afghan peace talks and hosting about 10,000 US troops in the country’s Al-Udeid air base.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Josh Lederman contributed.