The move comes six years after the United Arab Emirates severed ties with Qatar and imposed an illegal air, land and sea blockade.

Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani appointed an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, six years after the UAE severed all diplomatic and trade ties with Doha during the 2017 GCC crisis.

In a statement, the Amiri Diwan said the Qatari leader appointed “Dr. Sultan Salmeen Saeed Al Mansouri as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Arab Emirates.”

The move comes months after the two Gulf states announced the mutual reopening of diplomatic missions in Doha and Abu Dhabi,  marking the final step to rapprochement to end the 2017 Gulf Cooperation Council crisis.

In 2017, the UAE had joined Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt in severing ties with Qatar and imposing an illegal air, land and sea blockade on the Gulf state.

At the time, the quartet accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, though Doha has consistently and vehemently denied those “baseless” allegations.

While the crisis effectively came to an end in 2021 with the signing of the Al-Ula Declaration in Saudi Arabia, ties between Qatar and the UAE have taken time to pick up pace.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said the decision to reopen the embassies was “based on the Al-Ula Agreement, and the keenness of the two countries to strengthen bilateral relations,” referencing the historic 2021 accord that ended the region’s worst rift.

“The two sides affirm that this step comes as an embodiment of the will of the leaderships of the two countries, and in consolidation of the path towards joint Arab action, in a way that achieves the aspirations of the two brotherly peoples,” the statement added.