UAE FM on end of Qatar dispute, US, Iran, Turkey

United Arab Emirates' top diplomat says dispute with Qatar is over, but much is needed to be done to rebuild trust.

"re can't be a kind of an extended disagreement like this without need for confidence-building steps afterwards. re are some issues, some difficult issues that will come up in next phase that we must deal with maturely and in a transparent matter," said Anwar Gargash, United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

He did t elaborate on what those steps would be.Gargash's comments come after Saudi Arabia ended a three and a half year blocke of Qatar, opening its air and looking forward to opening up its land crossing to its tiny Gulf neighbour.On Tuesday, Gulf Arab leers and a representative from Egypt gared in Saudi Arabia and signed a declaration to start a new p in brorly relations, effectively ending Qatar's isolation among quartet. declaration touched on some topics that were previously a point of contention between countries.

"Respect for a country's sovereignty, viewing any threat as a collective threat, and attitude towards extremism and terrorism, se are all major factors that exist as an overarching framework towards relationship for future," Gargash said.

diplomatic breakthrough followed a final push by outgoing Trump ministration and Kuwait to mediate dispute.It also came as Saudi Arabia seeks to unify Arab ranks ahe of incoming ministration of President-elect Joe Biden, which is expected to take a firmer stand toward kingdom and re-eng with Iran.Gargash rejected idea that Trump's ministration was under any sort of pressure to negotiate an agreement before outgoing president leaves office.

"I think that y have reached a belief that this is one of achievements of current ministration in its last months," he said.

four countries that jointly boycotted Qatar were hoping ir embargo and media campaign would pressure it to end its close relations with Turkey and Iran.Egypt and UAE view support by Qatar and Turkey of Islamist groups like Muslim Brorhood as a security threat.Saudi Arabia and Bahrain meanwhile are primarily concerned about Qatar's ties with Iran.However, boycott failed to change Doha's stance, inste buoying its young ruler domestically as patriotic fervor swept through Qatar in support of his resolve.

It also pushed Qatar closer to Turkey and Iran, which rushed to assist ultra-wealthy Gulf state as it faced medical and food supply shorts in first days of embargo.But w Gargash struck a lighter tone on issues of Turkey and Iran, stressing that UAE wants to have good ties with Turkey and that solution to Iran problem must be a political one.

"We want to tell Turkey that we want rmal relations that respect sovereignty between us. For example, we want Ankara t to be main supporter of Muslim Brorhood. We want Ankara to restore its Arab relationship. We have reason to disagree with Turkey," Gargash said.

Is re a problem (with Iran)? Yes, re is a problem, but how do we solve problem? Solving problem is by avoiding escalation, by diplomatic and political means,he ded.

(IM CREDITS:AP)