Saudi Arabia moving towards easing boycott with Qatar

CAIRO – 19 August 2017: Within the last few days, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf's biggest power and the main party in the Qatar rift, has offered many relief and support measures to ease the boycott on Qatari citizens, especially for those willing to perform Hajj on the Saudi Arabia’s territories.

On Wednesday, the Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman met with a Qatari royal family member, Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Jassem Al-Thani. The meeting in Jiddah was the first by a Qatari royal in Saudi Arabia since a political standoff erupted 10 weeks ago when the kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar.

The quartet also halted direct flights, expelled Qatari residents and the three Gulf countries ordered their citizens in Qatar to leave. Saudi Arabia sealed Qatar's only land border.

The Jiddah meeting was followed by another one on Thursday between Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, currently in Morocco on a private vacation, with Sheikh Abdullah in Tangier.

The king ordered the reopening of the Salwa border crossing for the entry of Qatari pilgrims and to transport the pilgrims back home from King Fahad International Airport in Dammam and Al-Ahsa International Airport under the Program of the Guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud for hajj and umrah.

For his part, Sheikh Abdullah expressed his appreciation to his approval to open the Salwa border crossing for the entry of Qatari pilgrims to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's territories without electronic permits.

Sheikh Abdullah, who's lived previously for some years in Saudi Arabia and has gone back on private visits, has no role in government and his last position was as head of the equestrian and camel racing federation in the 1970s and 1980s, said Gerd Nonneman, a professor of International Relations and Gulf Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar.

The Salwa crossing, Qatar’s only land border outlet, was closed in June when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar.

The four Arab states, collectively called the Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ), have accused Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and individuals, as well as maintaining close ties with Iran, which the ATQ have accused of trying to destabilize the region by fomenting sectarian strife.