Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt which also imposed an embargo on travel and trade, agreed to lift the restrictions at a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in the kingdom on Tuesday
VIDEO: First Qatari vehicles cross the border into Saudi
09 Jan 2021 An officer gives flowers to a driver at a border crossing of Saudi Arabia with Qatar. Reuters
Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopened their land border on Saturday as they restore ties following a landmark deal at Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia.
A Qatari source told reporters that traffic at the Abu Samrah crossing, 120 kilometres south of Doha, resumed around 0700 GMT on Saturday.
Only a trickle of cars arrived at the palm tree-lined, whitewashed border post to make the short crossing to the Saudi side after news broke that the frontier had reopened.
The full reoperation of the Salwa border crossing hinges on finalising related procedures, Al Ekhbariya TV reported.
“All indications are that the outlet will actually operate during the next hours,” a correspondent of the television at the site reported.
He added that border guards have eased measures between the two countries and a large number of concrete barriers have been removed.
Saudi Arabia Monday reopened its air, sea and land borders with Qatar after their closure since June 2017.
The border reopening, announced by mediator Kuwait, came a day before an annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was held in Saudi Arabia.
Al Lusail retains Halul Island Cup 12 Dec 2020 - 9:45
Team Al Lusail celebrates after retaining the Halul Island Cup
The Peninsula
Doha: Al Jeryan Stud’s Al Lusail (Footstepsinthesand x Gooey) stayed true to his favourite status when he won the Halul Island Cup (Far Bend) for Local Thoroughbreds for the second straight year at the turf track at Al Rayyan Park, yesterday.
In the process the Hadi Nasser Rashid Al Ramzani schooled 6yo stayed unbeaten this term, having grabbed a hat-trick.
Ridden by Ronan Thomas in the 2400m race, Al Lusail was unstoppable once he was in his stride on the home stretch, beating Khalifa Bin Sheail Al Kuwari’s Abu Samrah (Zafeen x Starks), ridden by Marco Casamento for Gassim Mohammad Ghazali, by one and a half lengths.