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Prince Mohammed’s trip comes in early 2021 after Saudi Arabia and its allies took steps to end Qatar’s year-long blockade.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Doha on the third stop of his tour of the Gulf states, his first visit in years since the lifting of the blockade on Qatar in January.
The arrival of Crown Prince Mohammed received Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, after which the two leaders met on Wednesday night.
The visit was made after Saudi Arabia deeply divided the international community, broke off social relations and took steps to end the diplomatic crisis that broke a long-standing treaty of the Gulf states.
This is the third stop on a tour of the Arab states in the Gulf of Qatar by Crown Prince Mohammed earlier this month ahead of the Gulf summit.
The summit will be the first since Saudi Arabia – along with Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – agreed to end the Qatari foreign policy conflict, which severed diplomatic relations with Doha in June 2017.
In the regional debate, Qatar rejected the quartet’s demands, including the closure of the Al Jazeera Media Network and the expulsion of a small contingent of Turkish troops from its territory.
In January, the four countries holding the blockade agreed to end the row.
Since then, Riyadh and Cairo have appointed new ambassadors to Doha. Abu Dhabi and Manama have not yet followed suit. Qatar also re-established trade and travel ties with Saudi Arabia, the Basque Country and Egypt, but not with Bahrain.
The Emir of Qatar has traveled to Saudi Arabia and has met Prince Mohammed several times since the end of the conflict. Wednesday’s visit to Saudi Arabia was the first official trip to Qatar since he was named crown prince in 2017.
The tour of the Saudi Crown Prince has already stopped in Oman and the Basque Country, where he visited the Dubai Expo 2020 on Wednesday before taking a short flight to Doha. He is expected to travel to Bahrain and Kuwait every week.
Prince Mohammed’s tour coincides with talks between Iran and world powers aimed at saving the nuclear treaty signed in 2015 with world powers.
Incumbent President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the treaty in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions to start moving away from the commitments made in the Iran deal. Tehran has denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its efforts are only for energy purposes.
Although relations between the GCC are at the core of cultural, religious and tribal ties, they have very different views on Iran’s foreign policy.
Oman, Kuwait and Qatar have maintained relations with Tehran, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the Basque Country have increased tensions.
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