Saudi Arabia and Qatar Seeking Deal to End Gulf Crisis, Sources Say

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are expected to settle to an agreement within the next few days to ease the standoff between the two countries that has embroiled the Gulf region since 2017, according to several sources who were briefed on the discussions shared on Friday.

According to NBC News, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt cut off all diplomatic ties they had with Qatar three years ago and began a blockade against their former ally following accusations of Doha supporting the terrorism spread. However, Qatar denied those claims.

According to the source, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, welcomed the 'progress' in the Qatar talks and shared a final agreement that appeared to be within reach.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani shared earlier that there were some movements that Qatar hopes will put an end to the ongoing tensions.

The Qatari Foreign Minister shared during an online conference that they see and believe that Gulf unity is vital for the region's security, stability, and the sake of their people, as they believe that the needless crisis for them needs to end.

According to a senior administration official, Senior White House adviser, and the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, was in Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week to resolve the rift. The White House sought to achieve a final diplomatic win in the Middle East before Trump leaves his seat.

Sources who spoke to the media on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to share the information stated that the preliminary deal would hinge on Saudi Arabia, which will allow Qataris to resume flights through the airspace of the latter.

In exchange for the deal, the Qataris would stop pending international lawsuits against Saudi Arabia, a source confirmed.

Based on one of the sources, the United States has long been behind a diplomatic effort to renew relations between the Arab states. However, the push to resolve the airspace issue just initially began in earnest in February.

Gulf kingdoms of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which has one of the world's highest per capita GDP in the world, had momentarily resumed their discussions last year before breaking off again, but now they have been back in contact for several months, South China Morning Post reported.

According to the source, the White House became fixated on solving the rift between Doha and its neighbors this summer, after the successful establishment of the Abraham Accords, which laid the groundwork for the normalization ties between Israel and UAE.

The previously mentioned four nations severed ties with Qatar in June of 2017 and cut land, sea, air routes to the tiny kingdom, as accusations of supporting extremist groups circulated, a charge it denied, and maintaining close relations with Iran, the archrival of Saudi Arabia, Aljazeera reported.

The said Arab countries issued a list of 13 wide-ranging demands for Qatar to be brought back into the fold, including the shutting down of the prominent Qatari news outlet Al-Jazeera and its affiliate stations.

Others also demanded cutting ties with Islamist groups, specifically with the Muslim Brotherhood.