Qatar restores full diplomatic relations with Iran, despite demands from Saudi Arabia and other countries

Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran early on Thursday and promised to send its ambassador back to Tehran — a move that flies in the face of the demands issued by neighbouring Arab nations.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates all cut ties with Qatar in June, and issued a letter demanding 13 actions be taken to restore relations.

Qatar ignored the demands and let a deadline to comply pass, creating an apparent stalemate in the crisis. Attempts by Kuwait, the US and others have failed to make headway.

The boycott of Qatar has continued including the suspension of flights to and from the country, although Saudi Arabia has allowed pilgrims to travel to Mecca for hajj.

There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight, especially in light of Qatar’s latest move.

One of the demands the countries put to Qatar included a downgrading of its relationship with Iran, the Shiite-led country that is a regional foe for Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations.

It asked Qatar to shut its diplomatic posts in Iran, kick out any members of the Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with US sanctions.

But Qatar has announced it will restore relations with Iran instead, which will undoubtedly anger those opposing Qatar in the regional dispute, chief among them Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival.

Perhaps not unrelated, the move comes just days after Saudi Arabia began promoting a Qatari royal family member whose branch of the family was ousted in a palace coup in 1972.

“Qatar has shown it is going to go in a different direction,” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University said.

“It could very well be calculated toward reinforcing the point that Qatar will not bow to this regional pressure placed upon it.”

Qatar pulled its ambassador from Tehran in early 2016 after Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric sparked attacks on two Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran, a move to show solidarity with the kingdom.

A short Foreign Ministry statement issued early Thursday changed that, saying Qatar’s ambassador soon would return to Iran.

“The state of Qatar expressed its aspiration to strengthen bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in all fields,” the statement said.

In announcing its decision, Qatar made no mention of the diplomatic crisis roiling Gulf Arab nations since June, when Doha found its land, sea and air routes cut off by the four Arab states.

Iran, which welcomed Doha’s decision, has sent food to Qatar and allowed its aeroplanes to increasingly use the Islamic Republic’s airspace.

In recent days, Saudi Arabia reopened its border, allowing Qatari pilgrims to fly to the kingdom on Saudi aircraft for the annual hajj pilgrimage, which takes place at the beginning of September, to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca.

Riyadh also said it would allocate seven flights of the Saudi national carrier to bring pilgrims from Doha. It has subsequently accused Qatar of blocking its planes from landing in Doha. Qatari officials deny this, and say paperwork from Saudi Arabia has been sent to the wrong ministry.

Doha has previously labelled current arrangements as “illogical”. It has also accused Saudi Arabia of politicising the hajj.

The diplomatic crisis began on June 5, when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties to Qatar over allegations it was funding extremists and being too close to Iran. Qatar has long has denied funding extremists.

The crisis has proved a diplomatic thorn in the side of the United States, which is an ally to all four Gulf nations.

There have been mixed messages from Washington, with US President Donald Trump appearing to back the Saudis but with the State and Defence departments being more cautious.

Washington has a huge military base in Qatar and a naval base in Bahrain. Tuesday’s US-Qatari military exercise is the second since the onset of the Gulf crisis, following naval exercises in June.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Qatar announced its intention to return its ambassador to Tehran in a phone with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“We welcome this measure by the Qatari government,” Ghasemi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Despite recalling its ambassador in 2016, Qatar maintained its valuable commercial ties to Iran. Qatar and Iran share a massive offshore natural gas field, called the South Pars Field by Tehran and the North Field by Doha.

That gas field’s vast reserves made Qataris have the highest per capita income in the world, as well as funded the nation’s Al-Jazeera satellite news network and secured hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Iran also has incorporated the crisis into its regular criticism of the Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, part of the two Mideast powers’ long-running proxy war.

However, there is some hope tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are easing.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying visas had been issued for both Iranian and Saudi diplomats to visit their respective embassies and consulates. Final steps to allow the visits likely would be taken after the annual hajj pilgrimage.

There was no immediate reaction from the Arab nations boycotting Qatar on its Iran decision.

On Wednesday, the Central African nation of Chad announced it would close its embassy in Doha, accusing Qatar of trying to destabilise it from neighbouring Libya.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday that the US remains “very deeply concerned with the status of the dispute” between Qatar and the Arab quartet.

“It’s gone on for far too long. It really has,” Nauert added. She declined to comment on the restoration of Doha-Tehran ties.