Families reunite due to Qatar-Saudi flights resume
Khalid al-Qahtani stood in the arrivals hall at Riyadh's main airport about Monday, waiting around to see his sister almost several years just after a diplomatic rift with neighbouring Qatar split his family apart.
Other relatives from various other families clustered around him looking forward to the passengers to get off the first air travel from Doha allowed into Saudi Arabia since a U.S-backed deal reopened travel routes."My sister possesses been (in Qatar) for about four years. We communicate on WhatsApp ... My emotions - me and every Gulf citizen - happen to be indescribable," he said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic, trade and travel boycott on Qatar on 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism - a charge dismissed by Qatar which said the maneuver was meant to curtail its sovereignty.As the claims argued, family members and friends separated by the dispute had to fly to a neutral third country to meet up.Afterward Saudi Arabia's foreign minister announced a breakthrough in ending the dispute at a summit over Tuesday and the air, land and sea links started to re-open.
"Thank God ... thank God," said grinning schoolboy Khalid al-Harji at Riyadh's King Khalid AIRPORT TERMINAL, soon after arriving from Doha and interacting with his uncle and cousin."Qatar and us, we share many things: politically, economically, socially, geographically. There are relations, bloodstream between us," said Bandar al-Qahtani waiting around to greet his aunt.
