ABU SAMRAH, Qatar, Jan 10, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopened
their land border Saturday as they restored ties following a landmark deal to
end a three and a half year rift.
Saudi shut its side of Qatar’s only land border in June 2017 as part of a
package of sanctions it said was a response to Doha’s backing radical
Islamist groups and closeness to Iran.
Qatar always denied the charges.
AFP correspondents saw cars making the crossing on Saturday. A Qatari
source said traffic at the Abu Samrah crossing, 120 kilometres (75 miles)
south of Doha, had resumed around 0700 GMT.
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, all
of which also imposed embargoes on travel and trade, had agreed to lift the
restrictions at a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in the kingdom on Tuesday.
The day before the summit, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah
had announced on state television that a deal had been reached to “open the
airspace and land and sea borders between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the
State of Qatar”.
Qatar Airways and Saudi Airlines announced Saturday on Twitter that they
would begin resuming flights between their countries from Monday.
Only a trickle of cars arrived at the palm tree-lined, whitewashed land
border post to make the short crossing into Saudi Arabia after news broke
that the frontier had reopened.
A smaller number made the journey from the kingdom into Qatar, where
strict measures to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus have been
imposed.
“I’m very happy the border is open again,” said Qatari Jaber al-Marri, as
he approached a checkpoint in his Land Cruiser SUV, adding that he had loved
ones in the neighbouring kingdom.
“A lot of Qataris have relatives in Saudi Arabia,” he said, holding a
negative coronavirus test report.
“The coming days will be better.”
– ‘Reunited with my family’ –
Qatar has announced strict coronavirus control measures for those arriving
from Saudi Arabia.
Doha will require travellers to present a negative coronavirus test,
undergo another test at the frontier and quarantine in a government-approved
hotel for one week.
A helicopter belonging to the Qatari health service shuttled supplies
between Doha and the border, an AFP correspondent reported.
As it was the weekend, cargo haulage did not appear to have resumed.
Qatari Hamad al-Marri, who also drove a Land Cruiser, said he was excited
to go hunting with falcons in Saudi Arabia, a popular Gulf pastime.
“I’ll take a fortnight holiday there,” he said. “I will go hunting and
visit my friends, whom we have not seen for more than three and a half
years.”
“I’ll be reunited with my family,” he added. “Everybody is happy that we
can go to Mecca and Medina.”
The two Saudi cities are focal points of Islam, but Qataris had struggled
to undertake the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages during the diplomatic rift.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia blamed each other for the hurdles.
Several drivers gathered at a petrol station close to the Qatari exit
point just hours after the Kuwaiti announcement of a detente between Qatar
and its erstwhile rivals.
“It’s a great joy, I bought this new car, a Land Cruiser, in order to go
and celebrate with my relatives in Saudi Arabia,” said Zaid Muhammad al-
Marri, 23, a Qatari with a Saudi mother.