Qatar emir not attending annual Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia

A summit of Arab Gulf nations opened on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia without Qatar's ruler in attendance, despite signs of a thaw in a diplomatic crisis that has gripped the regions US allies.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani instead sent Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani to head Qatar's delegation to the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting.

The GCC bloc, composed of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, has been fractured since mid-2017.

That's when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and blockaded the tiny peninsula-nation.

The four accuse Qatar of supporting Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, which these countries view as a terror threat to regional security.

They also accuse Qatar of having close ties with Iran.

Qatar, which shares a massive underwater gas field with Iran, says its commitments have always been "to uphold international law and protect human rights and not to a specific party or group."
Qatar's powerful ex-prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, said reconciliation talks must address the harm inflicted on Qatar from the blockade so that "such policies are not repeated."