Within a week, UAE resume travel and trade with Qatar

On Thursday United Arab Emirates announced that it is going to resume travel and trade activities with Qatar within a week, following a US-brokered agreement signed in Saudi Arabia last week that ended a diplomatic rift within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Anwar Gargash, UAE foreign minister, informed a media conference on Thursday that “the crisis can’t be permanent, The crisis in the past years didn’t include negative actions on the ground, but whatever in media, it was harsh,” including that travel, transportation, and trade will resume within a week. However, he mentioned, different issues, together with restoring full diplomatic relations, would take time given geopolitical issues such as Iran, Turkey, and political Islamist groups. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had thanked the USA and Kuwait for mediating the “solidarity and stability” agreement. Gargash confirmed on Thursday that the al-Ula statement was the result Kuwaiti-American efforts, which “establishes a mechanism for a number of committees to work on removing boycott procedures within a week, along with bilateral tracks to address issues between nations.” He added that the GCC crisis was not the first, but “it was the deepest, We’re blissful we’ve got turned the page of this crisis, and we’re looking ahead to the GCC future, and the UAE is working to implement the Al-Ula agreement.” US officials have shuttled the Middle East in the latest weeks to realign Gulf nations to open land, sea, and air borders between them and Qatar.