RIYADH, 18 January 2021, (TON): Earlier announcement of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will reopen its embassy in Qatar in the coming days has been materialized. Saudi Arabia has formally issued orders to its diplomats and staff at Embassy to carryout necessary preparations to move to Doha to restore full diplomatic relations with Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies; the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel embargo on Qatar in June 2017 that included closing airspace to the country over some of its activities that are detrimental to security of the region. These countries released a list of 13 demands including shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera Media Network to be executed by Qatar for the blockade to end.

In the recent meeting earlier in the month in the Saudi desert city of Al-Ula between Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other stakeholder at the forum of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an agreement was reached that ended a three-year-old dispute between four Arab countries and Qatar. Three of the Gulf Cooperation Council members; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to lift the restrictions.