The foreign ministry of Qatar stated that it would start working with UAE administrations shortly to restore their connections

June 21, 2023: On Monday, Qatar and United Arab Emirates’ respective administrations reopened to start the work after the two Gulf states agreed to restore diplomatic links, Qatar’s foreign ministry stated.

The restoration of ties comes with a broader regional push for reconciliation. Over two years after, Arab states completed a boycott of Doha that had shattered the Western-allied Gulf Arab bloc.

The Qatari ministry said that the two foreign ministers, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, had held a phone call as the two embassies reopened on Monday.

In April that the two Gulf states were in the process of restoring diplomatic relations.

Abu Dhabi and Doha had been locked for years in a bitter rivalry over regional influence, the role of Islam in politics, and support for pro-democracy movements across the Middle East.

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt severed all ties with Qatar over accusations that it supported terrorism, a reference to political Islam, and had forged closer ties with Iran. Doha denied the charges.

Riyadh and Cairo were the first to reappoint ambassadors to Doha in 2021 after a Saudi-led deal to end the feud, while Bahrain has yet to reopen its embassy in Doha.

The ties were restored after Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-establish relations after years of hostility, which had threatened instability in the Gulf and stoked the war in Yemen.