Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in the process of restoring diplomatic ties and reopening their embassies, two officials said, more than two years after the Arab states ended a boycott of Doha that had shattered the Western-allied Gulf Arab bloc.
“At present, the activation of diplomatic ties, which will include the reopening of embassies, is under process between both countries,” a UAE official said in a statement in response to a question from Reuters.
A Gulf official said that embassies were expected to reopen with new ambassadors in their posts by mid-June, while a third source said diplomatic relations would be fully restored within weeks.
The restoration of ties comes amid a broader regional push for reconciliation, with Iran and Saudi Arabia agreeing last month to re-establish relations after years of hostility, which threatened instability in the Gulf and stoked the war in Yemen.
In mid-2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed all ties with Qatar over accusations that it supported terrorism, a reference to Islamist groups, and was cozying up to Iran, accusations Doha denied.
Riyadh and Cairo were the first to reappoint ambassadors to Doha in 2021 after a Saudi Arabian-led deal to end the dispute, while Bahrain last week announced that it would restore diplomatic ties.
All nations, with the exception of Bahrain, had already restored trade and travel links with Qatar in early 2021, when the UAE had said that resuming diplomatic ties would take time.
Relations between the UAE and Qatar warmed last year and the leaders of both countries met face-to-face.
“The UAE’s foreign policy is primarily focused on building bridges, economic cooperation and regional de-escalation,” said the UAE official, who declined to be identified.
Late last month Qatari and Emirati officials agreed to restore diplomatic ties and that Abu Dhabi has informed Doha who its envoy is to be, said the other Gulf official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Qatar has yet to do the same, the official added.
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.
In Qatar’s capital, Doha, workers have been laying new sidewalks outside the consular section of the UAE embassy and palm trees appear to have been recently planted in the garden. Across the street, another UAE embassy building seems abandoned, its garden overgrown and upstairs windows propped open.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS