Qatar receives first Bahraini ambassador since 2017 GCC rift

Posted by Admin July 29, 2024 World

Qatar and Bahrain had restored their relations in April 2023 following the 2017 regional crisis.

Qatar has received Bahrain’s first ambassador to the country since the 2017 Gulf Cooperation Council crisis, marking another major step in the thawing of relations after the rift.

In a statement on Sunday, Doha’s foreign ministry announced that Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sultan Al Muraikhi, received the credentials of the new Bahraini ambassador, Mohammed bin Ali Al Ghatam.

“[The] Minister of State for Foreign Affairs wished the Ambassador success in his duties, assuring him of providing all support to advance bilateral relations to a closer cooperation in various fields,” the statement said.

On June 12, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa named Al Ghatam as the head of Manama’s diplomatic mission to Doha as “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary”.

On the same day, Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani appointed Sultan Al Khater as Doha’s new ambassador to Manama, also the first since the regional dispute.

In 2017, Bahrain joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in severing relations with Qatar while imposing a complete air, land and sea blockade on the country—triggering the region’s worst diplomatic crisis.

The quartet had accused Qatar of supporting terrorism at the time, though Doha consistently and vehemently denied those allegations as “baseless.”

By 2021, the Gulf row effectively came to an end with the signing of the Al-Ula Declaration at the GCC summit in Saudi Arabia.

However, Qatar and Bahrain only restored their relations in April 2023, an outcome of a meeting between both countries’ diplomats in Saudi Arabia. This followed the resumption of direct flights between Doha and Manama on May 25, 2023.

Other key developments that both countries witnessed since the resumption of their relations included the revival of the shared “Friendship Bridge” project after the construction stalled during the blockade.

The causeway project came back to life last November during a meeting in Manama between Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The matter was also part of the discussions of the Qatari-Bahraini Follow-up Committee in Manama on February 20, where both sides agreed to restructure the project’s board of directors and “to take the necessary steps” to implement it.

The project was first announced in 2008 with the aim of improving trade and travel among the GCC. The $3bn project would connect Bahrain to Qatar’s northwestern coast, reducing travel from five hours to 30 minutes.