Saudi and Allies Restore Postal Service to Qatar Amid Rift
Saudi Arabia to Restore Postal Service to Qatar Amid Rift
(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain are resuming postal services to Qatar -- frozen during a diplomatic rift that’s lasted nearly three years -- following a similar move by the United Arab Emirates.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the shift indicated a broader mending of ties between the states, mired since June 2017 in a dispute that’s hurt trade and split the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council at a time of heightened tensions with Iran.
“The decision by Saudi Arabia to resume international postal exchanges with Qatar via Oman shows that countries are taking a constructive approach to this matter,” a spokesperson for the UN’s Universal Postal Union said Monday.
Saudi Post will resume mail service to Qatar from Tuesday, a spokesman for the company said. Egypt restored it from Feb. 17, according to messages sent by the countries to the UPU for global distribution to postal operators. Bahrain is also restoring the service, the UPU said in a statement. The countries, like the U.A.E., will be routing mail through Oman; there are no direct flights between the countries and Qatar.
The Qatari Postal Services Company said in a statement it was ready to resume postal services with the countries “in order to preserve the rights of postal services customers in the State of Qatar.”
Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar after accusing it of supporting terrorism and interfering in their domestic affairs, charges the government in Doha denies.
Earlier this month, the UPU said it hosted a meeting in Bern, Switzerland, in January, bringing together officials from the U.A.E, Qatar and other Arab nations involved in the diplomatic impasse. The talks sought to encourage the countries to send post to one another and improve service.
The Saudi government’s Center for International Communication didn’t respond to a request for comment. Egyptian postal authorities were not available for comment.
--With assistance from Abdel Latif Wahba and Simone Foxman.
To contact the reporters on this story: Sylvia Westall in Dubai at swestall@bloomberg.net;Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Sylvia Westall
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