Gulf Arabs Take Fitful Steps to End #Qatar Squabble as #Iran Looms - Bloomberg

Gulf Arabs Take Fitful Steps to End Qatar Squabble as Iran Looms - Bloomberg:

Qatar isn’t currently in talks with the United Arab Emirates over mending a 30-month regional diplomatic and economic rift, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

Qatar has held discussions with Saudi Arabia, however, and the easing of its earlier impasse with the kingdom has enabled the two neighbors to develop a line of communication, Al Thani said on Saturday in the Qatari capital. He held out the possibility of similar talks in the future with the U.A.E.

“Our conversation right now is with Saudi Arabia, and we think we are going to look at the rest of the issues at a later stage,” said Al Thani, who also serves as deputy prime minister. Qatar doesn’t foresee a date yet for a reconciliation agreement with the Saudis, he said.

Doha’s isolation from its closest and most powerful Arab neighbors stands in sharp contrast to their historically fraternal relations. The rupture occurred on June 5, 2017, when Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Bahrain and Egypt abruptly severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar. They accused Doha of bankrolling regional militant groups -- a charge it denies -- and undermining regional attempts to isolate Iran, with whom it shares the world’s largest natural gas field.