London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Saudi FM: Full ties restored between Qatar and blockading nations

Saudi FM: Full ties restored between Qatar and blockading nations

Gulf leaders signed a ‘solidarity and stability’ agreement towards ending the diplomatic rift at a GCC summit in Saudi Arabia.

Full relations would resume between Qatar and the four nations that had been boycotting it for the past three and a half years, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade ties and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar in June 2017.

The quartet accused Doha of, among other things, supporting “terrorist” groups and being too close to Iran, allegations Qatar has consistently denied.

Following numerous rounds of talks – brokered by Kuwait and the United States – Saudi Arabia, on Monday, announced the reopening of its borders with Qatar ahead of the summit.

On Tuesday, Gulf leaders signed a “solidarity and stability” agreement towards ending the diplomatic rift at a GCC summit in Saudi Arabia.

“What happened today is … the turning of the page on all points of difference and a full return of diplomatic relations,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a news conference at the conclusion of a landmark regional summit in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia.


“I am happy to report that we are at a place where everybody is satisfied and happy and yes all the outstanding, whether it’s the returning of diplomatic relations, flights, all of that will now go back to normal,” he said, adding “there is political will and good faith” to guarantee the implementation of the deal, saying the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt had all agreed to restore ties with Doha.

“We are extremely pleased with having been able to achieve this very important breakthrough that we believe will contribute very much to the stability and security of all our nations in the region.

“We have … been working very hard towards achieving this breakthrough for many years and the timing is just that, it’s that we were able to finally reach that conclusion.”

Earlier, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani separately and reviewed bilateral ties between the two “brotherly” countries, and ways of enforcing joint Gulf action, the Saudi state news agency reported.

The pair publicly embraced at the airport when Qatar’s emir arrived for the summit.

Leaders of the six-member GCC signed two documents on Tuesday, the Al-Ula declaration, named after the Saudi city where this year’s regional summit was held, and a final communique.

Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Doha, said it was unlikely many details regarding what led to the breakthrough will be made public.

“What was clear from the language chosen by the Saudi foreign minister and the GCC Secretary-General was that they wanted to gloss over the details and described it as all parties being content,” he said, adding that the focus was more on the “unity all the GCC countries have reaffirmed”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×