KUWAIT (CU)_ A long term dispute had made Qatar go against several of its Gulf neighbors is coming to an end as Saudi Arabia will be reopening its borders sea and land to Qatar.
An embargo was placed on Qatar by its neighboring countries on an accusation of Qatar supporting terrorism. Although these accusations were denied by Qatar countries like the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt joined the Saudis in the maintenance of this diplomatic travel and trade embargo.
The reason to lift the ban also comes ahead of the Gulf Co-operation council that will be held on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait has worked hard and patiently along with a lot of work put in diplomatically for the ban to be lifted. Kuwait has also been facing regular pressure from the USA to for this ban lift to be concluded before the end of Trumps presidency.
The UAE though in agreement to end the three and a half year embargo that was a costly affair to Qatar’s economy has many serious doubts that the Qatari’s will change their ways.
Qatar still denies them supporting terrorism but it is seen that they have supported political Islamist movements in countries such as Gaza and Libya. The most noticeable one being the Transnational Brotherhood which the UAE finds as a real threat to its monarchy.
It was the Kuwaiti foreign Minister Ahmed Nasser Al-Sabhe who made a televised announcement that the embargo was coming to an end.
Sebastian Usher the BBC Arab Affairs Editor also made a statement that the Kuwaiti government’s efforts were not gaining any positive results up until a few months ago.
The United States administration also played an active role in these efforts and white house official Jared Kushner will be attending the signing of the agreement on Tuesday.
The Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hameed Al Thani accepted the invitation from Saudi Arabia’s king Salman to attend the summit. The Emir’s attendance to the summit held major importance and the opening of the borders were to strengthen his confidence.
