Signs of détente: Riyadh reopens airspace and borders with Qatar

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia opens today. After three years, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani will also be present. Signs that would confirm the end of Doha's isolation in the region. US mediation to strengthen the anti-Iranian blockade.

Riyadh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - As of January 11, Saudi Arabia will reopen its airspace and land and sea borders with Qatar, after three years of frozen f diplomatic relations between the two Sunni monarchies in the Gulf. Riyadh and Doha would have accepted a proposal advanced by the Emir of Kuwait, one of the most active nations in the attempt to mend relations between the two regional powers.

The announcement came on the eve of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, which opens today in Saudi Arabia. An expected event that, according to some sources, could mark a definitive reconciliation between the landlord, Riyadh, and Doha. In the wake of the Wahhabi kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt also broke off relations with Qatar in June 2017.

Experts and analysts point to mutual economic and diplomatic ties between Doha and Tehran as the cause of the tensions. But in reality, behind the controversy - which isolated a small emirate in the Gulf area, bringing it even closer to Turkey and Morocco - lies the fracture within Sunni Islam between Doha and Abu Dhabi and the support that Doha offers to the Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Kuwait's foreign minister reported on a series of phone calls in recent days between the emir and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in an attempt to mediate in the crisis. Behind the attempts at reconciliation there would also be the mediation of the United States, committed to mending the rift to strengthen the common axis between the Gulf countries, in the face of what the outgoing Trump administration calls the "Iranian threat ".

In the past, Riyadh had set 13 conditions for the resumption of relations with Doha, among which the end of the transmissions of the satellite information channel al-Jazeera, opposed by many Arab regimes, the promise to stop funding for extremist groups (read Muslim Brotherhood ) and the closure of a Turkish military base on its territory.