The two countries announced the restoration of diplomatic ties on January 5th this year, ending a dispute that lasted for over three years.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Monday in his first ever visit to Doha since the 2017 blockade, Qatar News Agency [QNA] reported.
According to the state news agency, Al Saud came carrying a verbal message to the Amir from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. However, no details about the contents of the message were disclosed to the public.
On the same day, the Saudi diplomat met with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to discuss the development of relations between the two states after signing the historic Al-Ula Declaration.
Meanwhile, Saudi Press Agency [PSA] said Al Saud also met with the charge d’affaires of Riyadh’s embassy in Doha, though no news on the resumption of its consular operations was shared.
Officials had previously said the embassy would reopen “within weeks”.
The Saudi visit on Monday also came just one day after the Yemeni embassy in Qatar reopened for the first time in three years, with the Foreign Minister Ahmed Bin Mubarak filmed raising his country’s flag at the mission in Doha.
Yemen had followed Saudi Arabia’s footsteps in severing ties with Doha in 2017,
Read also: Yemen, Qatar restore diplomatic relations after three-year split
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed an illegal air, land and sea blockade on Qatar in June 2017 over false allegations that accused Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar has consistently and vehemently denies these allegations.
The dispute then ended in January this year at the 41st Al-Ula Summit in Saudi Arabia, when the blockading quartet and Qatar signed the accord that brought to an end the three-year crisis and announced the restoration of diplomatic ties between all states involved.
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