Friday 29 March 2024 (UAE)

Qatar GCC Crisis, Qrisis, Qexit, ties cut by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE

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Qatar GCC crisis and diplomatic rift with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE

The Qexit (?) Qrisis (?) story ...

News update starting 05 Jun 2017 (Monday) about diplomatic, economic, and trade embargo against Qatar (has anyone called this Qexit yet?). Direct trade ties cut by default as a result of transport links being severed. Financial ties not yet cut but ... many UAE exchange centers stopped exchanging Qatari Riyals (QAR) on 07 Jun 2017. Primary reference sources: BBC, Reuters, WAM, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) statements, airline websites, UAE news (The National, Gulf News, Khaleej Times).

What does it mean for you (summary as of 05-07 Jun 2017)? Note that citizen or national means a passport holder of the named country; a resident means either a citizen living there, or a non-GCC foreign expat with a residence visa for that country. GCC citizens have the right to live in any GCC member country (similar to EU citizens in Europe), except now for Qataris, they are banned from living in Bahrain, KSA, UAE but not (yet?) from Kuwait or Oman.

More detailed version ...

Qatar Airlines flight ban to and from the UAE

Qatar Airways flights to and from the UAE are no longer available from 06 Jun 2017. The QR website is blocked in the UAE so UAE residents and visitors cannot book QR flights, even if originating from somewhere other than the UAE. QR is also excluded from the Google Flights list of airlines if using the website in the UAE, although you can get around that by adding "QR" in the URL. Curiously, even though EL AL Israel Airlines also does not fly to or from the UAE, it is still possible to access the EL AL website in the UAE (we didn't try to make a booking though).

Information

Announcements and news items

Qatar Airways (QR) website booking check (05 Jun 2017):

Qatari websites blocked in the UAE

[Update Mar 2019, some websites available again in UAE (on du network) ... and then blocked again shortly after we wrote this comment, so we don't know what happened]

Qatar websites which are blocked in the UAE often just show a network or loading error page, not the blocked URL notification.

Situations where Qatar is not disconnected from other Gulf countries

References and further reading

Why has this happened? TL;DR version is that Qatar is accused (Qatar denies the accusations) of supporting terrorist organisations including Al Qaeda, ISIS (Islamic State, Daesh) and Muslim Brotherhood, and interfering with domestic affairs of other countries in the Gulf and Arab regions. More reading in these reports ...

Last update Tuesday 26-Mar-2019. Page development 4L 5C.
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www.dubaifaqs.com/qatar-gcc-crisis.php (PDF and print version).

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