News / Persian Gulf

Bahrain suspends issuing visas for Qataris amid growing diplomatic spat

Tuesday, 21 August 2018 5:00 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 21 August 2018 5:03 PM ]

In this file picture, a Qatari woman walks in front of the city skyline in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by the Associated Press)

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry has announced that it would stop issuing new entry visas to Qatari nationals in the wake of the the ongoing Saudi-led diplomatic and trade boycott against energy-rich Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar.

The ministry, in a statement released on Tuesday and carried on the state news agency BNA, announced that Qatari students now studying in Bahrain as well as those with valid visas would not be affected by the new measure.

The statement added that the move came in response to “the irresponsible acts of Qatari authorities, who neither do respect the rights of neighboring countries nor the principles of the international law.”

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.”

PressTV-Bahrain: No solution in sight for rift with Qatar

Bahrain, one of the Saudi-led quartet of countries boycotting Qatar, says there is no solution in sight for the rift with Doha.

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.

PressTV-Saudis creating disturbance in Persian Gulf: Qatar

The Qatari foreign minister accuses Saudi Arabia of creating disturbance in the Persian Gulf.

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."

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