Khalid al-Qahtani stood in the arrivals hall at Riyadh’s main airport on Monday, waiting to see his sister almost four years after a diplomatic rift with neighbouring Qatar split his family apart.
“My sister has been (in Qatar) for about four years. We communicate on WhatsApp … My feelings – me and every Gulf citizen – are indescribable,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott on Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism – a charge dismissed by Qatar which said the move was meant to curtail its sovereignty.
Then Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister announced a breakthrough in ending the dispute at a summit on Tuesday and the air, land and sea links started to re-open.
“Thank God … thank God,” said grinning schoolboy Khalid al-Harji at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, soon after arriving from Doha and meeting his uncle and cousin.
“Qatar and us, we share many things: politically, economically, socially, geographically. There are relations, blood between us,” said Bandar al-Qahtani waiting to greet his aunt.
On 4 February 2021, the 17th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup™ officially kicked off in Qatar, with…
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The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are the seven Arab states which border the Persian Gulf, namely Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).This excludes the non-Arab state of Iran. All of these nations except Iraq are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).