Saudi Arabia and Qatar have taken “significant” steps toward resolving their three-year dispute, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said in a virtual diplomatic conference on Friday.
“We’ve made significant progress in the last few days, thanks to the continuing efforts of Kuwait but also thanks to strong support from President Trump and US administration towards bringing all parties closer,” Prince Faisal told the MED 2020 Rome forum.
“We hope that this progress can lead to a final agreement which looks in reach and I can say I am somewhat optimistic that we are close to finalizing an agreement between all the nations in the dispute to come to a resolution that we think will be satisfactory to all,” Prince Faisal said.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates broke off relations with Qatar in 2017 in the worst diplomatic crisis to hit Gulf Arab states in decades.
It was the first public acknowledgment by Saudi Arabia of efforts to resolve the Qatar crisis.
2018: Qatar wants a “peaceful neighborhood” 02:42
“We view the efforts made by the sisterly State of Kuwait to bridge the gap in viewpoints regarding the Gulf crisis with great appreciation, and we thank the US efforts in this regard,” Prince Faisal said in a tweet earlier.
Earlier Qatar’s Foreign Minister told the same conference that there are current movements to “put an end to the Gulf crisis,” days after Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, visited the region.
Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Sabah said in a statement earlier on Kuwait TV that “fruitful discussions” have recently taken place in which all sides “expressed keenness for Gulf and Arab unity.” Al-Sabah thanked Kushner for his efforts.
