Is Qatar the reason for a new Crisis in the Gulf Region?

Qatar Airways, Saudia, Etihad, Gulf Air, Egypt Air, and Emirates operate frequent flights to Doha, Qatar. Will travel to and from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, or Egypt continue?

A year ago, Qatar Airways resumed flights to Riyadh.

Two years have passed since the AlUla agreement, which ended the four-year boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Still, the relationships between the countries, particularly Bahrain and the UAE, have not been reset.

Experts predicted that there would be a return to the confrontation between Qatar and the four boycott countries after the end of the World Cup last month since the agreement was viewed as a truce to ensure the success of the global event in Doha.

The AlUla Statement, a reconciliation agreement announced by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on January 4, 2021, marking an end to the diplomatic crisis with Qatar, was signed by Gulf leaders in the northern Saudi Arabian city of AlUla on January 5, 2021.

The AlUla agreement was supposed to end the Gulf crisis that began on June 5, 2017, when Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Bahrain declared a comprehensive boycott of Qatar, including the withdrawal of all diplomatic missions and the closure of land, sea and air borders to planes and Qatari citizens; as well as not allowing Qataris to visit those countries unless they held a special permit, and halting all commercial, cultural and personal transactions. Meanwhile, narrow security coordination remained in place.

At the time, the Gulf states justified the boycott by accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism, harboring members of the Muslim Brotherhood, allowing foreign military forces on its soil, and continuing its relationship with Iran.

In addition, the states pointed to what they said were Qatar’s actions against the interests of the boycotting countries, Qatar’s support for the Gulf and Egyptian coup movements, and other accusations.

The boycotting countries then set 13 conditions for reconciliation with Qatar, the most prominent of which was that it reduces its diplomatic relations with Iran, expel any element of the Revolutionary Guards present on its territory, and does not undertake any commercial activity with Iran that contradicts US sanctions.

Other conditions included: closing the Turkish military base in Doha; shuttering Al-Jazeera, which is accused of provoking unrest in the region; ceasing to interfere in the internal and external affairs of the four countries; stopping the naturalization of citizens of those countries; expelling those who have already been naturalized; and handing over wanted persons accused of terrorism cases who are residing in Qatar.

The conditions also included refraining from supporting or financing associations and organizations that the four countries and the United States classified as terrorists and severing Doha’s relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah, al-Qaida, and the Islamic State.

However, the AlUla agreement did not directly address the 13 conditions, and the signatories did not specify whether Qatar had met the conditions or whether the requirements had been waived. 

According to the AlUla agreement, negotiations should have taken place between Qatar and each of the four boycotting countries separately within a year of signing the deal to end the differences between them and to restore diplomatic, commercial, and other relations.

In the two years since the signing of the agreement, there have been no statements about negotiations between Qatar and the four boycotting countries.

There have been some visits, however: the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE; and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan undertook visits to Qatar.

Bahrain has remained on the sidelines, though its foreign minister, Dr. Abdul Latif Al-Zayani, announced that the country contacted Qatar to set a date for negotiations but said that the latter did not respond, according to the statement. There have been no visits on either side.

However, there was a photo that showed the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, together with the Qatari emir on the sidelines of the Jeddah Summit for Security and Development held in Saudi Arabia in the presence of US President Joe Biden on July 16, 2022.

Qatar, in turn, did not respond officially or unofficially to any of Bahrain’s statements, and media outlets have not reported on the fate of relations between Qatar and Bahrain.

Qatar appointed ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and both countries dispatched ambassadors to Doha.

Is Qatar the reason for a new Crisis in the Gulf Region?

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