Qatar restores Iran ties, deepening Gulf feud

LONDON — Qatar restored full diplomatic relations with Iran on Thursday, the latest volley in an 11-week-old geopolitical feud that has set the tiny, yet wealthy, Persian Gulf nation against its neighbors and rattled a previously placid part of the Middle East.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was sending its ambassador back to Tehran after a 20-month hiatus that started in January 2016, when Qatar broke off relations after attacks on two Saudi diplomatic facilities in Iran.

The Qataris gave no explanation for the sudden move. But the timing suggested a purposeful snub of Saudi Arabia, which along with three other countries began a punitive boycott of Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and a too-cozy relationship with Iran. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut their air and sea routes to Qatar, and closed its only land border, with Saudi Arabia.

Mediation by the United States, Kuwait and Germany has failed to resolve the feud in the Persian Gulf. Analysts said the partial blockade has badly weakened the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and threatens to undermine regional stability.

The crisis lapsed into a stalemate after Qatar refused an initial list of 13 demands, which included cutting all ties with Tehran. But things took a turn for the worse this week after a visit by a minor Qatari royal, Sheikh Abdullah al-Thani, to the Saudi ruler, King Salman, at his holiday villa in Morocco.

The Saudi news media played up Abdullah’s visit as the beginning of a potential challenge to the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Few analysts believe the emir faces a serious threat, but some Qataris took the move as a provocation, and as further evidence that the true intention of the Saudiand Emirati-led boycott is to engineer leadership change in Doha.