Iran and Qatar Resume Maritime Trade After Five-Month Break

Iran and Qatar have resumed maritime trade after a suspension of roughly five months, Iran's commercial attaché in Doha, Abbas Abdolkhani, said on Sunday, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Shipping between Iran's Dayyer Port and Qatar's Al Ruwais Port restarted after coordination between the Iranian Embassy in Doha and Qatari authorities, Abdolkhani said. The link had been idle since the wider confrontation that gripped the region earlier this year.

The suspension followed a sharp escalation across the Middle East. The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February, and Tehran retaliated with strikes on Israel and on other regional states hosting US assets, including Qatar. The fighting stopped on 8 April when Pakistan brokered a ceasefire, and an initial memorandum was signed in June.

Qatar has been among the mediators pressing for a final agreement, and those talks are continuing. The reopening of the Dayyer–Al Ruwais route restores one of the direct commercial channels between the two Gulf states after months of disruption.