Nachrichtenagentur Radio Utopie
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(19.03.2022)
Nach Gesprächen in Norwegen bemüht sich Bundeswirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck nun in Katar und anschließend in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten um zusätzliche Gaslieferungen. Der Grünen-Politiker traf heute zunächst in Doha ein. Die Reise ist Teil der Bemühungen, angesichts des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine die Abhängigkeit Deutschlands von russischem Gas zu verringern.
A few months later, the Ukrainian government asked the U.S. government to purchase the Iron Dome anti-missile system. Because the Iron Dome is a joint U.S.-Israeli project, the sale also required permission from the Israeli government, which Israel reportedly refused to grant.
That refusal was not based on any concern with whether the sale was a good idea for Eastern Europe, but on Israel’s desire to maintain a good relationship with Russia, according to the Times of Israel. Russia, which has forces stationed in Syria, gives Israel tacit permission to intervene in the Syrian civil war.
In recent days, the Qatari ambassador to Afghanistan has escorted small groups of Americans into the airport, according to two people familiar with the effort who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation. American citizens have been instructed to meet at rally points in the city, and the ambassador then accompanies them to guarantee safe passage, these people said. Qatar has served as an intermediary between the United States and the Taliban at several stages of the American withdrawal, sponsoring peace talks and serving as the first point of refuge for many evacuees.
Maas zufolge versucht die Bundesregierung derzeit, auch über Drittstaaten wie Katar Einfluss auf die Taliban zu nehmen. Derzeit gebe es aber noch „keine belastbaren Sicherheitszusagen“, dass die Taliban afghanische Staatsangehörige frei zum Flughafen in Kabul passieren lassen, sagte Maas.
(14.08.2021)
The Biden administration has been considering using third countries to process the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and on Thursday the Pentagon announced it would send around 1,000 troops to Qatar in the coming days to facilitate the processing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with his Qatari counterpart on Thursday and the State Department said he thanked Qatar for supporting „U.S. efforts to provide safety and security to Afghan nationals.“
(17.08.2021)
A top Taliban official has met with a Qatari official before leaving the country for Afghanistan.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday.
Baradar, who was reported to have been one of Taliban founder Mullah Omar`s most trusted commanders, was captured in 2010 by security forces in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and released in 2018 and was relocated to Qatar.
Hamas will not hesitate to escalate the security situation with Israel if Qatari cash and construction supplies are not transferred to the Strip within a few days, the militant group’s spokesperson Hazem Qassem told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on Sunday.
“We are evaluating all available options. We have no announcements to make on third country relocation sites for Afghan SIV applicants,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill in a statement, referring to special immigrant visas.
The Biden administration said Thursday there would be 1,000 U.S. troops going to Qatar to help process applications from Afghans already in the country. The Afghans are seeking visas to the U.S. for assisting the U.S. during the war.
MR. KIRBY: What I’d say, Mike — what I’d say to that, Mike, is what I’ve been saying for the last few days, that the Afghan forces have advantages, they have capability to protect their territory and their people, they have the capacity to do that.
What — what I think the Afghan people want to see and what they deserve to see is the leadership and the will to use those advantages to their benefit.
Thanks, everybody, going to have to go now.
(CROSSTALK)
Q: … can you clarify the numbers one more time, so I have no mistakes? 3,000 going into the airport, 1,000 first going to Qatar and then to Afghanistan to help with SIVs, or staying in Qatar?
MR. KIRBY: No — no, I said the — the 1,000 enablers will go to Qatar for right now. I can’t predict whether there’ll be onward movement from there. Right now, they’re going to Qatar …
Q: And the 3,500 …
MR. KIRBY: … again, for helping process, and then 3,000 to the airport in the next few days and then there’ll be a reserve force out of Bragg that will — that will stage out of Kuwait, and that’s roughly 3,500 to 4,000.
Q: And all of that’s in addition to the 650 who are there …
MR. KIRBY: That is correct.
The delegation will visit the Al Udeid Air Base, home of U.S. central command in the Middle East, where members will assess the Iranian threat, U.S. regional security posture and meet with deployed U.S. military personnel.
The two foreign ministers also held talks and discussed activating the mechanisms of the Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council and all that would enhance bilateral relations and develop joint work in various areas of coordination and cooperation between the two countries, the Kingdom’s foreign ministry said.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday, March 2, that Israel intends to develop a “special security arrangement” with the reactionary regimes of Arab Gulf states, who share common concerns over Iran. This comes after i24 News reported that Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have discussed expanding cooperation against their common enemies. “We will continue to confront any threat, along with our new and veteran partners, chiefly the US, so that Iran will not be able to develop nuclear capacity,” Gantz said.
Mehr als drei Jahre nach dem Beginn einer Blockade gegen Katar legen Saudi-Arabien und seine Verbündeten ihren Streit mit dem Emirat bei. Kuwaits Außenminister Ahmed Nassir al-Mohammed al-Sabah erklärte am Montag, dass die Länder sich auf eine Öffnung ihres Grenzverkehrs geeinigt hätten. Die Ankündigung folgte einen Tag vor dem Jahrestreffen des Golf-Kooperationsrats am Dienstag in Riad.
„Der geheim tagende Bundessicherheitsrat hat in seiner vergangenen Sitzung nach SPIEGEL-Informationen eine abschließende Genehmigung für die Ausfuhr von insgesamt 15 Flugabwehrkanonenpanzern vom Typ Gepard an Katar erteilt.
Kushner hopes to mend the divide between Qatar and other Gulf nations, according to the Journal, which noted that his visit follows U.S.-brokered pacts between Israel and Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. White House aide Avi Berkowitz, who was heavily involved in brokering the earlier deals, will accompany Kushner, the newspaper reported, adding that the negotiations will primarily involve Saudi-Qatari relations.
White House adviser Jared Kushner will travel to Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week, seeking to broker more diplomatic pacts in the Middle East in the Trump administration’s final days, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The signing ceremony, which was broadcast live by Sudan’s official TV, was attended by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
The participants also included representatives from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Chad and Egypt in addition to regional and international organizations such as the United Nations, the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union.
Fast zwei Jahrzehnte nach der US-geführten Militärinvasion in Afghanistan haben in Katar innerafghanische Friedensgespräche begonnen. Delegationen der Taliban und der Regierung Afghanistans kamen in Doha für eine Eröffnungszeremonie zusammen.
If realized, a peace deal would be the first time in generations that a new form of Afghan government was not being established at the point of a gun: The current model was ushered in by the American invasion that toppled the Taliban’s harsh Islamic regime in 2001, and each previous one back to the 1979 Soviet invasion was set off by coup, collapse or conquest.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will leave for Doha, Qatar, on Thursday night for the start of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, President Trump announced.
Die Taliban sind bereits in Doha, die afghanische Regierungs-Delegation, unter Führung des Vorsitzenden des Hohen Rates für Nationale Versöhnung, Abdullah Abdullah, werde heute im Laufe des Tages anreisen, hieß es. Auch US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo werde dabei sein, kündigte Präsident Donald Trump gestern Abend in Washington an.
„After a round of talks, mediated by the Qatari representative, Mohammed al-Emadi, an understanding has been reached to avoid an escalation and stabilize the situation. Several projects were announced that will serve and alleviate the situation for our people in Gaza, given the coronavirus crisis that has struck us,“ a statement from Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar’s office said.
U.S. diplomats told the AP that Pompeo will fly Sunday for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Sudan.
Authorized by Congress with no opposition, the so-called Caesar Civilian Protection Act amounts to an act of all out war on the very people it claims to protect. Targeting the Syrian Central Bank and penalizing any foreign company that does business with Damascus, the bill was conceived with the explicit aim of preventing the country from rebuilding after it defeated a proxy war imposed on it by the West, Israel, Turkey, and Gulf monarchies.
Charles Lister, a Gulf-backed de facto lobbyist for the Syrian opposition in Washington, inadvertently revealed the Caesar Act as an instrument of financial terror. In an op-ed for Politico this June, he forecasted “even greater levels of destitution, famine, and worsening criminality and predatory behavior” as a result of the new sanctions.
Predicting that “bread shortages are only a matter of time,” and projecting a famine in the near future, Lister cheerfully framed the human suffering caused by the sanctions as “an opportunity” for the United States to achieve regime change.
The visit came to light in an interview former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman gave Israel’s Channel 12 News on Saturday, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sent Cohen and the Israeli military’s chief of Southern Command Herzl Halevi to „beg the Qataris to keep funneling money into Hamas.“
The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America’s longest war — the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides.
Mehr als 18 Jahre nach dem US-Einmarsch in Afghanistan haben die USA und die militant-islamistischen Taliban ein Abkommen über Wege zu einem Frieden geschlossen.
US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo soll am Samstag in Doha ein Friedensabkommen mit den Taliban unterzeichnen. Anschließend sind innerafghanische Verhandlungen geplant.
Though Libyans shaped the ebb and flow of battle, they were hardly alone, even then: circling high above were foreign warplanes from the NATO-led coalition that kept at bay fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. And contrary to some official denials, there were also “boots on the ground” in the form of foreign special operations forces and intelligence personnel, from France, Britain, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who discretely channeled weapons and training to fractious anti-Gaddafi groups. In such meddling, there were already signs of a proxy rivalry that would explode into open warfare years later.
The two leaders discussed the importance of Coalition forces’ continued presence in the region to tackle the shared threat from Daesh.
Kuwait and Qatar signed on Sunday a long-term sale and purchase agreement for the annual supply of up to 3 million tons of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Kuwait.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif held talks in Tehran on Saturday with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The Qatari minister is expected to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during the visit.
(12.12.2019)
France and Qatar signed an agreement allowing France to deploy and station military forces within Qatar.
The Netherlands said on November 25 that it would join Denmark and France in the European naval mission, reported the NLTimes. The Netherlands said it would deploy a navy ship to the Persian Gulf for six months but said it would play an “observing” role. Belgium, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden are also expected to join the European coalition, the Tehran Times reported.
The Sudanese army did not issue a statement about this exercise.
In den arabischen Golfstaaten sind Millionen von ausländischen Arbeitsmigranten dem sogenannten «Kafala-System» unterstellt. Dieses führt zu einer totalen Abhängigkeit des Arbeiters von seinem Arbeitgeber.
Ministerpräsident Weil wird von fast 40 Unternehmern begleitet, die in dem Wüstenstaat neue Geschäftspartner suchen. Der katarische Staatsfonds QIA hält 17 Prozent der Stimmrechte bei Volkswagen und ist damit drittgrößter Aktionär nach den Familien Porsche/Piëch und dem Land Niedersachsen.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Sunday received a message from Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo on bilateral relations and means to develop them, the Qatari royal court said in a statement.
The message was conveyed by Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre during a meeting with the Qatari emir at the royal palace.
Qatar Petroleum (QP) has signed a ten-year agreement to supply 800,000 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) annually to China’s Wanhua Chemical Group, the company announced yesterday.
The company said that the agreement will go into effect starting January 2020 and last ten years.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed even recently told CBS that the kingdom is “open to all initiatives for a political solution in Yemen.” That’s a long way from another CBS interview last year in which he compared Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
That pragmatism can be heard in how both Saudi Arabia and the UAE look at Syria. Since the start of the country’s war in 2011, it backed those trying to overthrow Assad.
Trump’s call for ending U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and bringing the troops home was a feature of his presidential campaign, but it flies in the face of many decades of bipartisan American policy, even as the Trump administration and its immediate predecessor have tried to give additional attention to what they see as long-term security threats elsewhere, including from China and Russia.
As a result, the Combined Air and Space Operations Center at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar was left empty on Saturday and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina was put in charge of controlling US operations from 7,000 miles away.
Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada was not in the mosque near Quetta when a bomb went off but his younger brother, Hafiz Ahmadullah, was leading Friday prayers and was among four people killed, several Taliban officials have said. There was no claim of responsibility for the blast that came after both Taliban and US officials have reported progress in talks on an agreement centered on a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban security guarantee.
Two sources with knowledge of the talks said an agreement on the withdrawal of foreign forces in exchange for security guarantees by the Taliban is expected before Aug.13
About 20,000 foreign troops, most of them American, are now in Afghanistan as part of a U.S.-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.
Chairman Cummings issued the following statement:
“Today’s report reveals new and extensive evidence that corroborates Committee whistleblowers and exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The American people deserve to know the facts about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the President’s personal friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.”
The Committee’s second interim report is based on more than 60,000 pages of new documents produced to the Committee in response to requests that Chairman Cummings made to a host of outside companies about their involvement with plans to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The report states:
New documents and communications show that IP3, the private company lobbying the White House to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, repeatedly sought a $120 million investment from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It is unclear if the company ultimately received the investment.
The paradox of the current GOP administration in power is that while Donald Trump gets up at the podium and brays “America First” he and his son-in-law and other minions can’t sell out our interests to foreign powers fast enough.
(25.10.2016)
Qatar is a Sunni gas-powerhouse and wants to become the main supplier of gas there, and Saudi Arabia is a Sunni oil-powerhouse, which wants to become the major supplier of oil, but Saudi oil and Qatari gas would be pipelined through secular-controlled (Assad’s) Syria, and this is why the U.S. and its fundamentalist-Sunni allies, the Sauds, and Qataris, are using Al Qaeda and other jihadists to conquer enough of a strip through Syria so that U.S. companies such as Halliburton will be able safely to place pipelines there, to be marketed in Europe by U.S. firms such as Exxon. Iran also wants to pipeline its gas through Syria, and this is one reason why Iran is defending Syria’s government, against the U.S.-Saudi-Qatari-jihadist invasion, which is trying to overthrow and replace Assad.
Over the last two years, war-torn Somalia has emerged as a central battleground, with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar each providing weapons or military training to favored factions, exchanging allegations about bribing local officials, and competing for contracts to manage ports or exploit natural resources.
In an audio recording obtained by The New York Times of a cellphone call with the Qatari ambassador to Somalia, a businessman close to the emir of Qatar said that the militants had carried out the bombing in Bosaso to advance Qatar’s interests by driving out its rival, the United Arab Emirates.
Jordan and Qatar announced the restoration of full diplomatic ties by naming their respective ambassadors, two years after Amman downgraded its relations with Doha due to pressure from a Saudi-led block.
In June 2017, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Qatar siding with the regional axis of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, which imposed a land, sea, and air blockade of the gas-rich state.
Earlier this week, Qatar named Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, a member of the royal family, as its ambassador to Jordan, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
And US Central Command’s Forward headquarters is still located in Qatar despite the fact that two years earlier on May 23, 2017, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was accused by Saudi Arabia and the UAE of collaborating with Iran. It is unclear who gave the order to impose the embargo on Qatar. Saudi Arabia would not have taken that decision without consulting Washington. Visibly, Washington’s intent was to create an Arab NATO Alliance (An Arab Block) directed against Iran “to do the dirty work for us”.
Chevron-Phillips agreed with Qatar Petroleum to jointly develop and operate a petrochemical complex in Qatar, according to a joint statement provided by the White House that outlined the deals.
The Qatari Defense Ministry additionally committed to purchasing Raytheon’s medium-to-long range NASAM and long-range Patriot Systems surface-to-air missile systems…
„Secretary Esper thanked the Emir for the Qatari offer to improve Al-Udeid Air Base and for hosting U.S. forces,“ spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement, referring to the sprawling air base the U.S. uses for its regional operations.
President Trump is meeting with the Emir of Qatar. Trump announced that Qatar has agreed to buy military equipment including a “large number” of commercial planes from Boeing.
09.07.2019
HE the Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanim, who is currently visiting the United Kingdom, visited the production lines of the Typhoon and Hawk aircraft, BAE Systems. During the tour, the Chief of Staff was briefed by the manufacturers on the latest technology and equipment owned by the facility. The Chief of Staff was accompanied during the tour by the Executive Director of the company, Christopher B, officers of the Qatar Armed Forces, and the company’s senior officials.
For her part, Schmid expressed her pleasure at opening the first meeting of senior officials between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European External Action Service.
The training program between June 17 and June 28 is carried out with the participation of Turkey, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar and the United States, while Azerbaijan attends as an observer.
(01.06.2019)
Reports from Russia also picked up by media in Iran’s neighbour Turkey say Putin has rejected the request over concerns about rising tensions in the Persian Gulf region where several Arab leaders voiced their concern about Iran’s military ambitions.
This comes while according to Hurriet daily newspaper, the delivery of S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey is going ahead according to schedule,
Bereits 2014 hatte der damalige SPD-Bundeswirtschaftsminister Sigmar Gabriel angekündigt, den Export von Überwachungsprogrammen in Staaten, die wegen der Missachtung von Menschenrechten in der Kritik stehen, verbieten zu wollen. Die Bundesregierung schreibt in der Antwort nun, man prüfe …
(31.05.2019) Maier, on Thursday, said it was also increasingly likely that the residual U.S. force would soon be bolstered by an influx of troops and capabilities from other members of the coalition to defeat Islamic State.
„We’ve talked to close to 30 coalition partners about their role … somewhere over two dozen that we’re actively engaged with,“ he said, declining to share additional specifics. „Very few have told us no at this point.“
Der Oman leidet mit am stärksten unter der instabilen Situation am Golf. Das Land sieht sich als Vermittler zwischen Iran und dem Westen. Sultan Qabus ibn Said hatte den sogenannten Atomdeal mit dem Iran maßgeblich vermittelt, unter anderem, weil er sich davon einen wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung versprach. Diese Hoffnung hat US-Präsident Donald Trump mit der Aufkündigung des Vertrages und den verhängten Sanktionen zunichte gemacht.
His visit to Saudi Arabia is the first of its kind by a high-ranking Qatari official since the eruption in 2017 of an ongoing crisis in inter-Arab relations.
(13.05.2019)
B-52H Stratofortress aircraft assigned to the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Louisiana’s Barksdale Air Force Base took off from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, U.S. Air Forces Central Command said in a brief statement Monday. Additional bombers in the task force had been deployed to an unspecified base in the Middle East.
“They’re here to defend our forces and interests,” said Lt. Col. Christine Millette, a spokeswoman for Air Forces Central Command. Millette did not provide further mission details.
The authorities of Qatar asked earlier to purchase 24 of the AH-64E helicopters.
In 2016, the Boeing Company has won a two-thirds-of-a-billion dollar US Army foreign military sales contract to supply the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar with 24 Apache ground-support helicopters. According to the US Department of Defence, work on the contract is being implemented in Mesa, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of 31 May 2020.
Doch die Sudanesen wollen keine Einmischung. «Wir haben nicht den Diktator gestürzt, um uns die Politik von jemand anderem diktieren zu lassen», sagen die Demonstrierenden.
While Justin Trudeau’s government embraces repressive Middle East monarchies, they want us to believe their campaign to oust Venezuela’s government is motivated by support for democracy and human rights.
(24.3.2019)
An Israeli company licenses software around the world that can crack just about any smartphone, but is its use always on the side of good?
(25.3.2019)
Hulio’s company, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, first made global headlines in 2016 when its tools were used by the authoritarian government of the UAE in order to spy on Ahmed Mansoor, an award-winning human rights activist. The company has never fully addressed the spying; Mansoor currently sits, untried and unable to regularly contact his family, in an unidentified prison somewhere in the UAE on charges of criticizing the UAE government.
The spotlight did not dissuade the company. Instead, it served as an advertisement to other authoritarian governments about NSO Group’s exceptional ability …
(5.12.2018)
Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in Canada, has filed a lawsuit against an Israeli technology company called the NSO Group accusing it of providing the Saudi government with the surveillance software to spy on him and his friends — including Jamal Khashoggi. The program, known as Pegasus, not only allows the monitoring of all communications from a phone — all texts, all emails, all phone calls — but can also hijack a mobile phone’s microphone and camera to turn it into a surveillance device.
„There is a discussion for procurement of various Russian equipment, but there is no understanding as of yet as to this particular equipment,“ he added, referring to Russia’s S-400 missile defense system.
Lavrov also confirmed that talks on „bilateral“ military cooperation with gas-rich Qatar were under way.
The US has already supplied the advanced missile system to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We’re the eyes in the sky in support of the Combined Defense of the Arabian Gulf,” said 1st Lt. Elijha Williams, 727th EACS commander. “Our main mission here is to provide long range radar surveillance that’s in support of the battle management air space for our sectors. Along with the long range radar picture, we also have long range radios that we maintain and provide to shoot out to our operators across the AOR so that they can speak to the pilots in the air.”
Pakistan erhält zusätzlich zu Unterstützung von Saudis und Chinesen Finanzhilfe der Vereinigten Emirate
Qatar’s Emir, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, has pledged to provide every possible support to enable the Sudanese government to overcome what he described as the “ordeal”, reported the official news agency SUNA
President of Ecuador Lenin Moreno Garces, Prime Minister of Somalia Hassan Ali Khairi, President of UN General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, and a number of their excellencies ministers from different Arab and foreign countries attended the opening
Es’hailSat’s first satellite entered service in December 2013 and currently provides television content, business communications and other telecommunications services. Es’hail 2 features high-speed Ku- and Ka-band transponders, a military communications payload and sophisticated anti-jamming capabilities.
It also features the first Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation — AMSAT — payload to fly aboard a geostationary satellite, providing coverage stretching from Brazil to Thailand.
A used Falcon 9 rocket launched the Es’hail-2 communications satellite for Qatar on Nov. 15, 2018.
(11.11.2018) Negotiations for the financial package to Gaza began months earlier, following the Palestinian Authority’s decision to cut salaries of employees in Gaza last year, an Israeli government source with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The sanctions against Gaza were an attempt to put economic pressure on Hamas to relinquish control of the coastal enclave to the Palestinian Authority.
According to the report, the sea route will be under international supervision in addition to Israeli security monitoring. However, it is yet unclear how and in what manner the sea route will operate.
U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad will visit Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar this month to push for peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban, the State Department says.
While President Donald Trump condemned Iran in his address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly, a small but influential group of countries gathered elsewhere in New York City in an attempt to rally support for an increasingly controversial cause among the international community.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the ambassadors of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to Washington and the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency were among those who spoke alongside two of President Donald Trump’s most senior officials at the 2018 United Against Nuclear Iran summit.
(22.9.2018) President Donald Trump has backed plans to offer a Middle East Security Alliance (MESA) to members of the GCC supportive of America’s stand on Iran, a proposal that is expected to be discussed behind the scenes at the UNGA meetings in New York.
Diplomats see the evolving position of Washington towards a new core group as a product of the Iran situation but also a plank of the Middle East peace process review undertaken by Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“Following my trip to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries opened a new center to target terrorist financing. They are enforcing new sanctions, working with us to identify and track terrorist networks and taking more responsibility for fighting terrorism and extremism in their own region,” Trump told the crowd of world leaders.
“The United States is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan, and Egypt to establish a strategic alliance so Middle Eastern nations can advance security and stability across their home region,” he added.
Days after Doha, one of Ankara’s closest allies in the Gulf region, pledged $15 billion in direct investment in Turkey, Qatar’s private sector has also turned to the country as five major conglomerates are looking to invest $300 million.
„We see Germany as a key player in the world economy and are looking at the German market with great optimism,“ Qatar’s minister of finance, Ali Sharif al-Emadi, told Handelsblatt newspaper ahead of a Qatar Germany Business Investment Forum in Berlin on September 7.
On Sunday fighting continued for the third consecutive day between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in the eastern city of Ghazni.
The US previously said it would sit on the sidelines of an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” peace process. The Trump administration changed tack, however, in recognition of the Taliban’s refusal to enter negotiations with the Afghan government without first discussing the removal of foreign troops in the US.
The first round of basic contacts “were very helpful”, a senior member of the Taliban’s Quetta Shura told the Guardian. They requested anonymity as only the movement’s spokesperson is authorised to speak in public.
A State Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about whether the talks took place. But the department did not deny that its diplomats had taken part in such talks — a significant shift in American strategy toward the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Das US-Außenministerium dementiere die Gespräche nicht, schreibt die „NYT“ weiter. In einem Briefing des Außenministeriums diese Woche wurde eine Reise von Wells nach Katar bestätigt. Die Taliban unterhalten in Doha ein halboffizielles Büro.
Russia and Qatar have been in discussions about a possible sale of S-400 missile systems to Doha, TASS news agency cited the Russian envoy to Qatar as saying on Saturday.
(15.7.2018) Taking part in the meeting on the Russian side were Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, Energy Minister and Co-Chairman of the Russian-Qatari Commission for Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation Alexander Novak, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev, and CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Rosneft Igor Sechin.
Ohne die mit vielen Milliarden gespickte militärische, waffentechnische, politische und mediale Unterstützung der USA, Saudi-Arabiens, Katars, Kuwaits, der Türkei, Großbritanniens, Frankreichs und anderer westlicher Staaten einschließlich Deutschland hätte es diese Aufrüstung radikaler Milizen, die in jedem westlichen Land vor Gericht mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit als Extremisten eingestuft werden, nicht gegeben.
On Wednesday, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi unveiled a raft of economic deals, signing 20 memorandums of understanding for over 60 joint projects, including in the oil and gas, banking, nuclear energy, and defense.
The deals, approved at a meeting of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, did not involve the four other Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members — Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Vor allem Bau- und Infrastrukturmaßnahmen für die Fußball-WM 2022 in Qatar versprechen seit Jahren riesige Aufträge auch für deutsche Unternehmen wie Hochtief, Siemens, Deutsche Bahn, Albert Speer und Partner oder die Dorsch-Gruppe, die den Zuschlag für die Bauaufsicht über ein 45-Milliarden-Euro-Projekt erhielt.[6] Kurz vor der WM-Vergabe hatten der damalige Vorstandschef von Hochtief, Herbert Lütkestratkötter, und Kanzlerin Angela Merkel gemeinsam mit der qatarischen Führung getagt. Wenige Monate nach dem WM-Zuschlag für das Emirat reiste der Hamburger Reeder Erck Rickmers in Begleitung von Franz Beckenbauer nach Doha. Zuvor hatte Rickmers laut Spiegel online 250.000 US-Dollar an die Franz-Beckenbauer-Stiftung gespendet. Der Sunday Times zufolge war die Reise vom damaligen qatarischen FIFA-Delegierten Mohamed bin Hammam organisiert worden. Es sei, teilt die von Rickmers geleitete E.R. Capital Holding mit, „um die mögliche Zusammenarbeit der E.R. Gruppe mit katarischen Investment-Fonds und einer Beteiligungsmöglichkeit im Schifffahrtsbereich“ gegangen.[7]
Auch deutsche Politiker, darunter unter anderem Bundespräsident Christian Wulff, gaben sich in jener Zeit in Qatar fast die Klinke in die Hand. Qatar hatte – ganz unabhängig von der Fußball-WM – begonnen, Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur systematisch auszubauen, um perspetivisch seiner völlig einseitigen Abhängigkeit von Erdöl und Erdgas zu entkommen. Dazu diente, wie Jäger es schildert, unter anderem ein Großprogramm mit dem Titel „Qatar National Vision 2030“, das wiederum bei deutschen Unternehmen Interesse an teils milliardenschweren Aufträgen weckte. Konnte da nicht die Fußball-WM dem Emirat weitere Anreize und interessierten Firmen zusätzliche attraktive Aufträge bieten? Wie auch immer – die Pläne, mit denen Qatar sich erfolgreich um die WM-Vergabe bewarb, wurden in Frankfurt am Main entwickelt, vom Architektur- und Planungsbüro AS+P (Albert Speer und Partner), das wiederum neben deutschen Baukonzernen nach erfolgreicher Bewerbung von den nun anfallenden lukrativen Bauaufträgen profitierte. Die Frage, wer wem zu einer Fußball-WM verhilft, kann weitreichende Konsequenzen haben.
(2014) Bundesregierung legt ihre schützende Hand über das Emirat Katar, einem finananzierungsstarken Goldesel für die deutsche Wirtschaft. Auch die „Bekämpfung des Islamischen Staates“ lässt sich in bare Münze umrubeln.
In the chaos that followed the overthrow of Gaddafi, Human Rights Watch staff made it to Libya and found a cache of documents left in the office of notorious intelligence chief, Musa Kusa, who had fled the country initially to the UK and then fled on to Qatar.
Katar kauft 24 »Eurofighter«-Kampfjets. BRD ist an Deal beteiligt
On May 1, the developers of the Signal encrypted messaging application revealed that over the previous month, Google and Amazon took steps to stop Signal from continuing to bypass censorship measures in place in Egypt, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Workers, youth, journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates will no longer be able to use the application to send encrypted messages and evade government surveillance.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish Iran for its missile programs. He’s also urging Saudi Arabia and its neighbors to resolve a long-festering dispute with Qatar that U.S. officials say Iran is exploiting to boost its influence in the region, including in Yemen and Syria.
Umm Qasr port is in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is engaged in talks with the US and would consider sending forces to Syria along with other Arab countries as part of this contingent.
Jubeir also noted that the idea is not necessarily new, as Saudi Arabia made a similar proposal to the Obama administration, but that the US did not take them up on the offer.
Already this devastating conflict has cost more than 500,000 lives and led to 5 million refugees being forced to flee Syria, and 6 million internally displaced. We must put negotiations for a political settlement centre stage, and not slip into a new cycle of military reaction and counter-reaction.
Protracted external military intervention in Syria – from funding and arms supplies to bombing and boots on the ground – has not helped in the slightest. Syria has become the theatre for military action by regional and international powers – the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates among them.
AMIR AL THANI: I’m very happy and honored to be here, and thanks for this invitation. Our relationship between Qatar and the United States has been more than 45 years. It’s a very strong, solid relationship. Our economic partnership is more than $125 billion, and our aim and goal is to double it in the next coming years.
Our military cooperation is very solid, very strong. As everybody know, that the heart of fighting terrorism is from Al Udeid Base. And, thank God, it’s been a very successful campaign against the terrorist groups around our region.
Lately, before I come here, I was in Tampa. I visited the CENTCOM, and we met with the generals. And it was a very important visit, and it shows how strong our cooperation is between the armed forces.
Of course, we speak today and we see the suffering of the Syrian people. And me and the President, we see eye to eye that this matter has to stop immediately. We cannot tolerate — with a war criminal, we cannot tolerate with someone who killed more than half a million of his own people. And this matter should end immediately.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
American officials expressed confidence that they would have the backing of France, which has been vocal about the need for a strong response, as well as Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all of which called for Syria to be held accountable for the suspected chemical attack. It remained unclear, however, whether any of the allies would participate.
(8.3.2018) In remarks reportedly made this week in a meeting with Egyptian newspaper editors, he pointed to a “triangle of evil” in the Middle East made up of Iran — Riyadh’s perennial foe — Islamist extremist groups and Turkey. His rhetoric seemed to echo the notorious „axis of evil“ bluster of the George W. Bush administration.
The inclusion of Turkey raised eyebrows and sparked an angry backlash on Turkish social media.
The signing of a $4 billion partnership deal with Qatar last week to build and manage the Red Sea port of Suakin puts the country’s strategic location under spot and could be considered the first serious attempt to tap this resource that has been neglected for quite long time.
The Sudanese-Qatari joint venture that will take three years to materialize is envisioning spending $500 million in the first phase and then expand eventually so as to enable the new port handle the expected surge in volume of trade.
Russian President Vladimir Putin noted progress in Russian-Qatari relations as well as positive prospects for mutual trade at a meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday