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Families reunite as Qatar-Saudi flights resume after rift

January 11, 2021 at 6:07 pm

A man hugs his sister who arrived at King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh on the first commercial flight from Qatar, on January 11, 2021 [FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images]

Khalid al-Qahtani stood in the arrivals hall at Riyadh’s main airport on Monday, waiting to see his sister almost four years after a diplomatic rift with neighbouring Qatar split his family apart, reports Reuters.

Other relatives from other families clustered around him waiting for the passengers to get off the first flight from Doha allowed into Saudi Arabia since a U.S-backed deal reopened travel routes.

“My sister has been (in Qatar) for about four years. We communicate on WhatsApp … My feelings – me and every Gulf citizen – are indescribable,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott on Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism – a charge dismissed by Qatar which said the move was meant to curtail its sovereignty.

Timeline: Arab rift with Qatar

As the states argued, relatives and friends separated by the dispute had to fly to a neutral third country to meet.

Then Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister announced a breakthrough in ending the dispute at a summit on Tuesday and the air, land, and sea links started to re-open.

“Thank God … thank God,” said grinning schoolboy Khalid al-Harji at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, soon after arriving from Doha and meeting his uncle and cousin.

“Qatar and us, we share many things: politically, economically, socially, geographically. There are relations, blood between us,” said Bandar al-Qahtani waiting to greet his aunt.

The end of the Gulf dispute - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The end of the Gulf dispute – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]