The Gulf Rift dates from 2017, when the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade on Qatar.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister says Riyadh is looking for a way to resolve the three-year gap with its Gulf neighbor Qatar.
Commenting on the dispute on Saturday, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said that Saudi Arabia continues to find a way to end the blockade on Qatar, but added that it remains conditional on addressing security concerns.
The dispute dates back to 2017 when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, not a member of the GCC, imposed a boycott on Qatar, breaking diplomatic and transport relations and accusing it of supporting “terrorism.” Qatar denies all the accusations against it.
Last month, Prince Faisal said that Saudi Arabia was committed to finding a resolution.
“We remain ready to collaborate with our brothers in Qatar and we hope they are so committed to that commitment,” he said. “But we have to address the quartet’s legitimate security concerns and I think there is a path to that” with a solution “in the relatively near future.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said last week that there are no winners in the Gulf crisis, adding that his country hopes it will end “at any moment.”
But Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, told Israeli media that he did not believe a resolution was imminent.
“I don’t think it will be resolved soon simply because I don’t think there has been any introspection,” al-Otaiba said.
Prince Faisal, speaking in a virtual interview on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit, which his country is hosting, also said that the kingdom enjoyed “good and friendly” relations with Turkey, which has been at odds with the kingdom for years in foreign policy. .
The murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 heightened tensions.
For more than a year, some Saudi and Turkish traders have speculated that Saudi Arabia was implementing an informal boycott of imports from Turkey.
Prince Faisal said he has not seen figures to support the existence of a boycott.
The Saudi minister said he was confident that the incoming administration of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden will pursue policies that help regional stability and that any discussions with him will lead to strong cooperation.
Riyadh is preparing for a new US president who pledged in the election campaign to reevaluate ties with Saudi Arabia, a state he described as a “pariah” in 2019.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman enjoyed close personal ties to US President Donald Trump, and their relationship provided a buffer against international criticism of Riyadh’s human rights record following the Khashoggi assassination. Riyadh’s role in the Yemen war and the arrest of women’s rights activists.
Those areas may now become sticking points between Biden and Saudi Arabia, a major US oil exporter and arms buyer.
Prince Faisal emphasized the 75-year history of “strong defense cooperation” between the two countries and said he hoped it would continue.
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