'Seeds of progress' in ending Gulf row with Qatar, UAE envoy says
UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba signaled the Gulf parties are getting closer to an agreement.
UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba says there are “seeds of progress” in resolving the blockade that the United Arab Emirates and its Gulf neighbors imposed on Qatar.
“I think there’s definitely progress or at least there are seeds of progress,” Otaiba told the Hudson Institute think tank during a virtual event on Tuesday.
“There are a lot of commitments … to kind of tone things down, to stand down. If that holds, I think it is promising. I think there is a chance that you can at least begin a process of deconfliction,” Otaiba added.
Qatar remains under an air, land and sea embargo imposed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. The four countries severed ties with the tiny Gulf peninsula in the summer of 2017, prompting a diplomatic crisis in the region.
