RIYADH // Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Qatar has resumed his duties in Doha, eight months after being withdrawn in an unprecedented diplomatic rift between Gulf states, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain withdrew their envoys to Doha in March, sparking one of the GCC’s worst diplomatic rows since its creation in 1981.
GCC leaders agreed in an extraordinary meeting in Riyadh on Sunday that the ambassadors would return. The talks were held ahead of the group’s annual summit set for Qatar on December 9 and 10.
Saudi ambassador Abdullah al-Aifan told the daily Asharq al-Awsat he was “back in Doha, in the presence of all the Saudi diplomatic staff”, adding that relations between the neighbours are “back to normal”.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE had accused Qatar of meddling in their internal affairs by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, and the UAE has jailed dozens of people convicted of links to the Islamist organisation.
Doha earlier this year asked leaders from the Brotherhood to leave Qatar following diplomatic pressure from Saudi Arabia.
* Agence France-Presse
