UAE, Qatar lean towards reopening embassies

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar and the United Arab Emirates both acknowledged on Tuesday that they were moving closer to reopening their embassies in each other’s countries after years of boycotting Doha over political disputes.

Qatar’s international media office said in a statement that it was “working hard” to reopen the embassy “as soon as possible”. “The two countries are activating diplomatic relations, including the reopening of their embassies,” the UAE said in a statement.

Neither statement gave an immediate date for reopening. Reuters first reported the effort.

The United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, launched a boycott of Qatar in 2017 and blocked the country’s airspace for airlines, among other restrictions.The four countries are angry over Qatar’s ties to Islamists and Iran, among other allegations under the presidency donald trumpadministration.The move sparked the biggest diplomatic crisis among Gulf Arab states Iraq Invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Trump initially appeared to support the four countries, though he later hosted Qatar’s emir at the White House in 2019. Qatar’s wealth comes from offshore gas fields it shares with Iran and is home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command.

While Kuwait’s then-emir warned that the dispute would almost turn into an armed conflict, the boycott ended in 2021, just before the end of the presidency joe biden Take office.

Qatar hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with the opening ceremony attended by the President of Egypt and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Since then, relations between Qatar and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have also begun to ease.