Qatar's ruler visits Saudi Arabia, holds talks with crown prince

By Mohammed al-Ragawi

ISTANBUL (AA) – Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani visited Saudi Arabia on Monday for the first time since this January’s Gulf reconciliation agreement ended a years-long spat.

Al-Thani was received at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on Monday evening by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

They later held talks on “bilateral relations and the means to enhance them in different fields,” according to the state-run Qatar News Agency.

The Qatari ruler returned to Doha at dawn on Tuesday, the agency reported.

Al-Thani had also exchanged greetings with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Contacts between the neighboring countries have picked up since Qatar and Gulf leaders agreed in January to mend relations.

For over three years, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain cut ties and imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on Qatar, over allegations of supporting terrorist groups and being too close to Iran – both claims that Doha vehemently denied.