QATAR GROK Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Prisoner Release Eases Relations [May 27]
” Observers hope that the Qatari decision to release Saudi prisoners will herald a new chapter in their ties. Hours after they were released from a Qatari prison where they had been confined for more than 14 years, the former Saudi prisoners sat with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz in his palace in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The ex-detainees, from the Ghufran clan of Al Murrah tribe, wanted to express their deep gratitude to King Abdullah for securing their release, Saudi News Agency said. “They were received by King Abdullah on the same day when they were allowed to go home following a request for their release from the King to his brother the Emir of Qatar,” the agency said. In their address to King Abdullah, the ex-detainees paid rich tribute to his “generous and benevolent act that put back smiles on the faces of dozens of Saudi families after 14 years of sadness over the imprisonment of their relatives for more than 14 years.” Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s king thanked Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani for responding positively to his request to release Saudi citizens who had been held by Doha since 1996 for their alleged role in a failed coup..” [Complete Report]
Vodafone Takes On Legal Fight Over Virgin in Qatar [May 27]
“The world’s biggest mobile telecoms company by revenue, Vodafone, has taken ‘legal action’ against Qatar’s telecommunications regulators because of a licence granted to Virgin Mobile Qatar. Vodafone own 23% of the shares of its Qatar company, with another 23% of shares owned by the Qatar Foundation. The remaining 54% are publicly traded shares. The company are arguing that regulators have given Virgin Mobile (who are owned in entirety by Qatar Telecom) the right to commence mobile services this month without issuing the proper licence to do so and this has had a detrimental affect on their shareholders, the bulk of which are ‘individual Qataris’ who total some 82,000 people. The operator states that its original contract, agreed with the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology, had terms which did not allow for another ‘mobile service provider’ to enter the market until a ‘proposed sector review’ had taken place..” [Complete Report]
Saudi Arabia to Mediate in Bahrain-Qatar Row [May 27]
“Saudi Arabia has offered to mediate in a row between fellow Gulf states Qatar and Bahrain which has led to arrests of Bahrain-based fishermen by Qatar, a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) official said on Thursday. Analysts say tension has been high since Bahrain nominated Mohammad al-Mutawa, a former Bahraini information minister said to be disliked by Doha, as the next secretary general of the GCC, a six-member regional bloc. Saudi King Abdullah has offered to mediate in the nomination dispute, an official at the GCC Secretariat told Reuters, declining to be named. “This is important because it paves the way for Saudi mediation in the issue of the Bahraini sailors held by the Qataris,” he said. The two countries have long had strained ties despite settling a territorial dispute in 2001. Tensions escalated after Bahrain said Qatar’s coast guard shot and wounded on May 8 a Bahraini fisherman who had entered Qatari waters..” [Complete Report]
