Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is going to visit neighboring Kuwait on the weekend, amid expectations that he will seek a Kuwaiti mediation to resolve the ongoing spat with Qatar and put an end to its diplomatic and trade boycott against the energy-rich Persian Gulf kingdom.
The official Kuwait News Agency reported that Saudi Arabia’s 33-year-old de facto leader will visit Kuwait City on Saturday, and hold talks with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah and his counterpart Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 last year, after officially accusing it of “sponsoring terrorism.”
The administration of the Saudi-backed and former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties with Doha. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations as well.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry later announced that the decision to cut diplomatic ties was unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions.
On June 9, 2017, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha.
Later that month, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera television network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha.
The document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain also asked Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. Qatar rejected the demands as “unreasonable.”