MDWLive! News Network

Gulf Countries Indicate Some Flexibility on Demands on Qatar

July 19, 2017

Senior diplomats from the four Arab countries that have broken ties with Qatar indicated Tuesday that they were no longer insisting on 13 precise demands that the Qataris must satisfy, or on a specific deadline for them to comply. The remarks by the diplomats from Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi [...]

Qatar Plans Food Cluster to Boost Supplies at Home

July 17, 2017

Domestic Al Jaber Engineering awarded $431 million contract Project was started last year, before Saudi-led boycott Qatar will spend 1.6 billion riyals ($431 million) to build a food-processing and storage facility near Hamad Port in about two years that will more than meet local demand for sugar, [...]

UAE wants international monitoring of Qatar

July 17, 2017

LONDON (Reuters) – A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official said international monitoring was needed in the standoff between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, adding he saw signs that the pressure exerted on Doha “was working”. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and [...]

Doha Festival City’s $1 billion-plus loan refinancing frozen amid Qatar boycott: Sources

July 16, 2017

DUBAI/DOHA (Reuters) – The refinancing of a $1 billion loan by Doha Festival City, a retail and hospitality complex in Qatar, has been indefinitely postponed as a diplomatic crisis deters regional banks from doing new Qatari business, bankers said. The refinancing, coordinated by Doha-based [...]

France wades into Qatar spat

July 16, 2017

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — France’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Qatar’s neighbors to immediately lift measures impacting thousands of people in the Gulf, becoming the latest foreign diplomat to visit the region and attempt to help find a resolution to a crisis that has dragged on for more [...]

Gulf crisis threatens Qatar Airways transit business: experts

June 12, 2017

Dubai (AFP) – Qatar Airways has made Doha a global hub in just a few years, but barring it from Gulf states’ airspace threatens its position as a major transcontinental carrier, experts say.Along with its Gulf peers — Dubai’s Emirates Airlines and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad [...]

Kuwait reduces diplomatic ties with Iran

July 20, 2017

Kuwait has decided to shut down Iran’s cultural attaché office in the country and reduce the number of Iranian diplomats. The reason – Tehran’s alleged ties with a “terrorist group” plotting attacks against the Persian Gulf state, Arab media outlets reported.The Arab media suggested [...]

EXLUSIVE INSIDER: Reliving The Saudi Palace Coup

July 19, 2017

(Reuters) – On Tuesday June 20 Mohammed bin Nayef, a powerful figure in Saudi Arabia’s security apparatus for the past two decades and the next in line to the throne, was summoned to meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz on the fourth floor of the royal palace in Mecca. There, according to a [...]

Australia helps Sri Lanka as dengue toll hits 250

July 19, 2017

COLOMBO (AFP) – Australia will join Sri Lanka in its war on dengue fever, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday, as the virus has claimed a record 250 lives and infected nearly 100,000 people in the South Asian country this year. Sri Lanka has deployed hundreds of troops to [...]

Qatar Central Bank Says Country Has $340 Billion in Reserves, Can Weather Arab Sanctions

July 12, 2017

Doha — Qatar has $340 billion (264.27 billion pounds) in reserves that could help the Gulf country to weather the isolation by its powerful Arab neighbours, central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah Bin Saoud al-Thani said. “This is the credibility of our system, we have enough cash to preserve [...]

$1 billion headache for Airbus as Qatar cancels four jets

July 7, 2017

(Reuters) – Qatar Airways has axed orders for four A350s because of delivery delays, Airbus said on Thursday, handing the European planemaker a new headache over what to do with jets worth $1.2 billion at list prices as it tries to close a sales gap with rival Boeing. The decision means [...]