REGIONAL- Qatar has restored diplomatic ties with Iran “in a move set to further inflame tensions with the four Arab states it has been locked in a regional dispute with since June,” Financial Times reports. Qatar and other GCC countries had recalled their ambassadors from Iran after mobs damaged Saudi diplomatic facilities in the country in early 2016. Mohammed al-Sulami, chairman of the Saudi-based Arabian Gulf Centre for Iranian Studies, said he believes Qatar has “surrender[ed] to Iranian pressure after Iran opened its skies and ports and offered what Doha called economic aid.” Another political analyst told the salmon-colored paper “restoring ties with Iran when they are being told to distance themselves from Iran shows that Qatar is turning its back on the other Gulf states … The rupture seems destined to continue for some time.” The news is getting wide pickup in the international press — see entries from the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press.

In Qatar-related news, five suspects have been detained in Turkey in connection to Qatar’s claim of a hacking that started the GCC crisis, according to Reuters.