CAIRO (Dispatches) – Qatar has been invited by Saudi Arabia to attend two emergency Arab summits being convened in the Saudi city of Mecca on May 30, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, after previously saying it had not been.
Last week Qatar said it had not been invited to the two summits Saudi is planning in Mecca to discuss the implications of drone strikes on oil installations in the kingdom and attacks on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the UAE coast earlier this month.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed an economic and diplomatic boycott on Qatar since June 2017 over allegations that Doha supports terrorism and is cozying up to regional foe Iran. Qatar denies the charges.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received an invitation from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to attend the summit of Persian Gulf Arab rulers and a wider meeting of Arab leaders, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The invitation and a letter were passed to Qatar by the head of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, the statement said, without saying whether Qatar would accept it.
The kingdom said that while it did not want war in the region, it was ready to respond strongly. The UAE has not blamed anyone for the sabotage of the tankers pending an investigation, and said it was committed to de-escalation.
The UAE has said that the current "critical circumstances” in the region required a "unified” Arab and Persian Gulf stance.