Qatar and Bahrain, two of the Gulf states, have decided to renew their joint high committee’s activity. This decision was announced yesterday after a five hour meeting between top officials from both states, including Bahraini king Hamad Bin ‘Isa Al Khalifa, and Qatari Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani. The committee will resume its activities in February 2004, according to the Qatari daily Akhbar Al-Khalij.
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(Akhbar Al-Khalij)
The delegations discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to improve them. They focused on economic cooperation and investment opportunities in both countries that would benefit their private sectors, according to the official Qatari news agency.
One of the issues also discussed at the meeting was the building of a bridge to connect the two countries. Bahrain is an island-state about 40km (approx. 25 miles) away from the shores of Qatar.
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(Univ. of Texas)
The summit comes three years after the conclusion of five decades of heated dispute between these two oil-rich states.
The core of this dispute was the Hiwar islands off the shore of Qatar, and the port-city of A-Zibara, in the northwest of Qatar – both these areas are oil- and gas-rich. The Hiwar islands were under Bahraini rule, and Qatar considered them as Qatari. A-Zibara was under Qatari rule, and Bahrain considered it as Bahraini. The dispute over those areas almost escalated into a full-fledged war in 1986, but Saudi intervention managed to calm the two opponents.
In 1991, Qatar and Bahrain appealed to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, in order to settle their dispute. The court had to deal with a huge amount of documents, and after nine years it decided that A-Zibara would be under Qatari rule, and the Hiwar islands under Bahraini rule. The Emir of Qatar gave an assurance in February 2001, during a visit to Bahrain, that all the territorial disputes between the two countries were solved.
The friendly relations between Qatar and Bahrain will help move forward the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agenda [Read more here [2]] including the unification of the GCC countries’ currencies, planned for 2010.