Ethiopia, which had severed its diplomatic relations with Qatar in April 2008, is renewing them by accrediting a new Qatari ambassador to Ethiopia.
Ambassador Hamad Al Rumeihi, the diplomat appointed to head the Qatari embassy in Addis Ababa has already arrived there. He was received at the airport by Arab Ambassadors and the Dean of Arab mission in Ethiopia, the Moroccan Ambassador.
There are sixteen Arab embassies in Ethiopia including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, all three countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council of which Qatar is also a member.
Though Qatar had no embassy in Ethiopia, it had diplomatic relations which Ethiopia severed in 2008 accusing Qatar of being a a cause of “instability in the Horn of Africa,” which observers understood to mean Qatar’s strong relations with Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea.
Eritrea has been been in a no-war no-peace standing with Ethiopia since the border war the two countries waged between 1998-2000.
Since then, Qatar has been an active player in the region brokering a peace deal between Eritrea and Djibouti, a deal which has never been officially acknowledged in Eritrea’s state media of Isaias Afweiki and reported exclusively by awate.on-forge.com.
Qatar is also heavily involved in the crisis in Sudan and has initiated several meetings and agreements between the Sudanese government and its opposition.
The Gulf nation is also involved in the Somali case where Ethiopia is heavily involved. According to our sources, Qatar is on the verge of opening an Embassy in Somalia as well.
Over the last decade, Qatar has been successfully engaged in the crisis of Libya and is currently involved in helping the Syrian opposition to the rule of Bashar Al Assad.
In February of 2012, the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Al Thani met with Meles Zenawi, the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, in London on the sidelines on a conference of Somalia, where the two agreed to restore diplomatic ties between the two countries.
A high level trade delegation has also visited Ethiopia last summer to study Qatar investment opportunities in Ethiopia
Over the last two years, the Eritrean Qatari relations has been getting cool due to the many embarrassing situations that Isaias put the government of Qatar which has been offering him financial and material help including loaning him a Qatari private jet for his travels.
Qatar has a long standing friendship with Eritrea and recently funded the building of a large mosque in Keren, Eritrea.
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