Kuwaiti Emir in U.S. , French FM in Qatar to heal Gulf rift

CAIRO – 4 September 2017: Kuwait and France have increased their efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis between Egypt, the UAE, Saudi and Bahrain on one side and Qatar on the other. The French Foreign Minister heads to Doha, while the Kuwaiti Emir heads to the United States.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani affirmed Doha’s keenness to increase its economic cooperation with France during coming period during his meeting with his French counterpart on Sunday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is visiting Doha currently to discuss the developments of the Gulf crisis and the Kuwaiti mediation efforts, in addition to the developments on the regional arena, especially in Libya and Syria, Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs statement read.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah will start an official visit to the U.S. on Monday, during which he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss Kuwait’s efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis and ways of cooperation closely on the war on terrorism, regional security and the Middle East peace process, as well as other bilateral files, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA said on Monday.

The Kuwaiti emir’s last visit to the U.S. was in May 2015 for a summit, which included leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Since June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have turned against Qatar with a complete air and trade boycott over allegations of its support and sponsorship of terrorism, which Doha denies.

Following the Arab boycott of Doha, a list of 13-demands was handed over to Doha’s government by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain for reconciliation, which includes the closing of Al-Jazeera broadcasting and the suspension of its relationship with the extremist government of Iran.

Since then, Qatar has resisted conciliation attempts and has not shown any efforts of disassociating itself from the terrorist groups that the quartet claims are harbored and financially supported by Doha.