The United Arab Emirates has released a Qatari naval vessel and four sailors who were on board the ship and held for about a week. This comes during a boycott of Doha by the federation and three more Arab nations.
In fact, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry identified the four sailors by name and rank, saying that the Qatari-flagged ship entered UAE waters on April 30.
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What is more, Qatar claimed that that the boat was carrying out routine operations in Qatari territorial waters when it suffered a ‘technical fault.’ After that it drifted unintentionally into UAE’s waters, and was seized.
This comes to add to a series of confrontations between Qatar and the UAE, which along with Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia has implemented a boycott on Doha over a political dispute since June 2017.
Moreover, the four countries have also imposed several shipping sanctions on Qatari vessels and cargoes. For this reason, Qatar had to come up with an alternative arrangement for import and export logistics, which included new routes to and from Oman.