WASHINGTON: The US administration intensified its mediation efforts in the spat between Doha and its neighbors on Tuesday, as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in Washington that there “is no blockade” on Qatar.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hosted Al-Jubeir, while US Defense Secretary James Mattis will reportedly be meeting his Qatari counterpart Khalid Al-Attiyah on Wednesday.
Tillerson and Al-Jubeir met for over an hour at the State Department, and the standoff with Qatar took priority in the talks. Ahead of the meeting, Saudi Arabia’s first diplomat laid out his country’s approach to the escalation.
“There is no blockade of Qatar. Qatar is free to go. The ports are open, the airports are open,” Al-Jubeir said while standing next to Tillerson in the Benjamin Franklin room.
Al-Jubeir struck a defiant approach in explaining Saudi Arabia’s moves. “What we have done is we have denied them use of our airspace, and this is our sovereign right,” he said. “The limitation on the use of Saudi airspace is only limited to Qatar Airways or Qatari-owned aircraft, not anybody else.”
He added: “The seaports of Qatar are open. There is no blockade on them. Qatar can move goods in and out whenever they want. They just cannot use our territorial waters.”
Al-Jubeir also highlighted Riyadh’s latest measures to ease the restrictions to allow joint Saudi-Qatari families to be reunited, adding that Saudi Arabia would send humanitarian relief if needed.
Parallel to Al-Jubeir’s visit, Al-Attiyah arrived in Washington on Monday and is slated to meet Mattis on Wednesday. The US administration has been keen to prevent the diplomatic crisis having repercussions on the fight against Daesh and US defense operations in Doha.
Putin calls King Salman
King Salman received Tuesday a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They reviewed bilateral relations and opportunities for their development in all fields. They also discussed the latest developments in the region and joint cooperation to combat extremism and terrorism, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
‘There is no blockade... Qatar is free to go,’ says Saudi FM
‘There is no blockade... Qatar is free to go,’ says Saudi FM
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website. The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes. Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24. Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information. “The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight. Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
