Home Politics Saudi Arabia’s opening of access to Al Jazeera’s website is the first time since the crisis of severing diplomatic relations.
Saudi Arabia's opening of access to Al Jazeera's website is the first time since the crisis of severing diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia’s opening of access to Al Jazeera’s website is the first time since the crisis of severing diplomatic relations.

by YCPress

February 15th, Aljazeerea English and Arabic websites could be accessed in Saudi Arabia, which was the first similar situation since the severance crisis in Qatar.

In June 2017, four countries, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, severed diplomatic relations with Qatar on the grounds of “supporting terrorism” and made the closure of Al Jazeera TV station a prerequisite for the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Since then, the Saudi government has banned Al Jazeera in public places and closed Al Jazeera’s office in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which is also unavailable.

In January 2021, representatives of the four countries that severed diplomatic relations and the government of Qatar signed the Euler Declaration, which symbolized reconciliation during the summit of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

Al Jazeera quoted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar as saying that the parties did not talk about the closure of Al Jazeera TV station in the negotiations before signing the Euler Declaration.

Some analysts pointed out that the attitude towards Al Jazeera TV station can be regarded as one of the vanes of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but as of press time, the Saudi news department had not made a position on whether to allow Al Jazeera TV station to be watched in public places in the country.