PARIS: A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official said on Monday Qatar’s powerful Arab neighbors could continue to isolate it “for years” if it did not change course in its policy of supporting extremists and jihadist groups.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Paris, Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said a list of grievances Arab nations had with Qatar would be completed in the next few days,and that Doha needed to move beyond its state of “denial.”
“The Kuwaiti mediation will be very useful and there will be demands coming. Qatar will realize that this is a new state of affairs and isolation can last years,” Gargash said.
“If they want to be isolated because of their perverted view of what their political role is then let them be isolated.”
Qatar denies fomenting instability in the Middle East and funding terrorism.
Gargash also urged Turkey, which has been supportive of Qatar, to remain balanced in the crisis and understand that it was in its interest to support Arab efforts.
UAE’s Gargash says Qatar isolation could last for years
UAE’s Gargash says Qatar isolation could last for years
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.
