Monday, 11 January 2021_Bahrain’s civil aviation affairs authority says the country will open its airspace to Qatar as of Monday, following a deal to end the Saudi-led Persian Gulf row with Doha.
The announcement was made on Sunday, few days after a reconciliation agreement was reached between Qatar and the Arab quartet nations—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain severed diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar.
The Saudi-led quartet accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, presented it with a list of demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face consequences.
Doha, however, denied terrorism charges and refused to meet the conditions laid out by the boycotting bloc, stressing that the country would not abandon its independent foreign policy.
The reconciliation deal was signed at a summit in Saudi Arabia’s city of al-Ula on January 5.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have already announced reopening airspace, land and maritime borders to Qatar.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister had said at the summit that the four states agreed to restore all relations with Doha.
However, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that while the UAE could re-open trade and travel links with Qatar within a week, some issues would take a longer time to fix.
1st Qatar-Saudi flight to take off
On Monday, direct flights between Qatar and Saudi Arabia were to resume.
A Qatar Airways flight would take off from Doha at 1045 GMT and land in Riyadh at 1210 GMT, according to the airline's timetable.
It marks the first commercial flight between the two countries in three and a half years.
Meanwhile, Saudi Airlines flight would depart at 1340 GMT from Riyadh to Doha, according to its online schedule.
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