Qatar restores ambassador to Iran amid regional crisis

Agencies

August 24, 2017

Qatar says its ambassador will return to Tehran more than 20 months after he was recalled in protest over the ransacking of Saudi Arabia's missions by protesters angry at Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Qatari foreign ministry said its ambassador would "return to resume his diplomatic duties", as Doha wanted to strengthen ties in all fields with the Islamic republic.

The information office did not specify an exact date for the ambassador's return - or provide his name - but said Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed "bilateral relations and means of boosting and developing them" in a telephone call with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

The decision to restore ties with Iran comes amid a diplomatic dispute between Qatar and several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.

They accuse Doha of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and financing terrorism - a charge Qatar has dismissed as "baseless".

'A different direction'

Qatar recalled its ambassador to Tehran in January last year after Saudi Arabia cut ties with the Islamic Republic, accusing Iran of failing to protect its embassy in the capital and consulate in Mashahd against protesters who had ransacked them.

Demonstrators stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran over the kingdom’s execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia leader who had rallied anti-government protests in the kingdom's eastern province.

Saudi Arabia said the execution was justified as part of its "war on terrorism".

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University said the decision to install the ambassador shows Qatar is prepared "to go in a different direction".

"It could very well be calculated toward reinforcing the point that Qatar will not bow to this regional pressure placed upon it," she told the AP news agency.

Qatar, which is dependent on food imports, imported the vast majority of its food from its Arab Gulf neighbours before they imposed a punishing trade and travel blockade.

Since June 11, Doha has been receiving fresh food supplies from the Iran, which has also allowed Qatar's national carrier to use its airspace.

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Israel orders 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of ground invasion

News Network

May 6,2024

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

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