UAE: Qataris banned from entering UAE June 7

Event

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that Qatari nationals will not be allowed to enter its territory until further notice and will be banned from passing through its airports, even for a transit period. The Australian airline Qantas has announced that Qatari nationals will not be allowed to board its flights to Dubai.

This decision comes a few days after several Arab countries cut ties with Qatar in an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

Context

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt have announced that they have banned air, sea, and land travel to and from Qatar in a series of coordinated statements. The airlines Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia, and FlyDubai have all announced the indefinite suspension of flights to Qatar starting Tuesday, June 6. The three Gulf States and Egypt gave Qatari visitors and residents two weeks to leave their territories. Several prominent Gulf and Egyptian businessmen have urged investors to withdraw from Qatar, and the price of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), of which

Qatar is a major supplier, has fallen sharply. Qatar was also expelled from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Gulf Arab states, Egypt, and Jordan have long resented Qatar's alleged support for groups such as the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State (IS), among others. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused the country of broadcasting militant ideology, a reference to the Al Jazeera media outlet. Qatar allegedly used Al Jazeera to promote the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, a move which threatened many of the Gulf monarchies and fueled the overthrow of the then Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

Qatar has also been heavily criticized for forging a relationship with Iran, considered by many Arab countries as a dangerous enemy.