Mohammed bin Salman in Qatar to seal reconciliation in the Gulf

Published on : 12/09/2021 – 09:00

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Qatar on Wednesday, December 8, his first visit to Doha since June 2017, the start of the diplomatic crisis between the two countries which reconciled almost a year ago.

The kingdom’s crown prince, who de facto rules Saudi Arabia, is in Qatar on a regional tour that also took him to Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Mohammed bin Salman, said MBS, is also due to travel to Bahrain and Kuwait for the tour, conducted in preparation for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in mid-December, Saudi state media reported. He was greeted in Doha by the Emir himself, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, with whom he was to have an interview.

This visit seems to mark the improvement of ties between the two countries, which had reestablished their diplomatic relations last January after more than three and a half years of crisis in the Gulf.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of fueling unrest in the region. They criticized in particular Doha for being too close to Iran, a rival regional power of the Saudi kingdom, and for supporting radical groups, which the Qatari authorities have always denied.

“Improving the unity and stability” of the CCG

After Oman, where trade deals worth $ 30 billion were signed, MBS traveled to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday evening, where he met the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and UAE strongman Mohammed ben Zayed al-Nahyane.

In a joint statement, the two countries said they pledged to “improve the unity and stability” of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

MBS visited the World Expo in Dubai on Wednesday under heavy police protection. The Saudi pavilion was closed to visitors and a small crowd of spectators had gathered outside.

Imbroglio around the Khashoggi affair

The Saudi crown prince arrived in the Emirates shortly after news of the arrest on Tuesday in Paris of Khalid al-Otaibi, a Saudi man suspected of being a member of the commando team involved in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But on Wednesday, the attorney general of Paris, Rémy Heitz, announced that he had been released.

This imbroglio came a few days after the meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and the Saudi Crown Prince in Saudi Arabia, three years after the shock caused by the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

Former close to Saudi power of which he had become a fierce detractor, this journalist was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 by a commando of agents from Saudi Arabia. His body has never been found.

After denying the murder, Riyadh ended up saying that it was committed by Saudi agents who acted alone. After an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three to prison terms – death sentences have since been commuted.

A US intelligence report accuses MBS of having “validated” the assassination.

With AFP