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Friday, December 7, 2018

Qatar injects more cash into Gaza for Hamas employees

Date created : 07/12/2018 - 14:16 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

A Palestinian man shows his money after receiving his salary in the Gaza Strip on November 9, 2018 following a cash injection from Qatar to employees of Hamas A Palestinian man shows his money after receiving his salary in the Gaza Strip on November 9, 2018 following a cash injection from Qatar to employees of Hamas AFP/File

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by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, France24, Gaza City Palestine

Employees of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip began collecting their salaries for a second month Friday, after Qatar pumped more cash into the territory with Israel's blessings.

It came despite a major flareup between Hamas and Israel that saw Avigdor Lieberman resign as Israel's defence minister after accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being soft on the Islamist group.

Hundreds of employees of Hamas government departments waited in long queues outside banks in the Gaza Strip from the early hours, AFP reporters said.

The Hamas-run finance ministry announced in a statement to local media that the money would be distributed over the next two days, with employees receiving 50 percent of their salaries.

Doaa, a 36-year-old employee at the women's ministry in Gaza, said she came early in the morning to receive her salary.

"This payment helps us to live our life and meet the needs of our children, even if only a little."

In Qatar's operation, a total of $90 million is to be distributed in six monthly instalments of $15 million, according to authorities, primarily to cover salaries of officials working for Hamas.

A first tranche of $15 million was distributed in November, and the second one was brought into Gaza late Thursday by Qatari ambassador Mohammed al-Emadi, Hamas sources said.

The Qatar envoy to Gaza also met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

The Qatari cash injection is part of an unofficial truce between Hamas and Israel, that was supposed to see an end to months of violent protests along the Gaza-Israel border in exchange for an easing of Israel's crippling blockade of the coastal enclave.

But on November 11, Hamas and Israeli undercover troops had a bloody gun battle following a botched Israeli raid in southern Gaza.

In the following days, Hamas fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, with the Israeli army striking Hamas targets in Gaza.

A ceasefire two days later ended the violence, but Lieberman, who was opposed to the Qatari money transfer, resigned.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since pushing out rival faction Fatah in a 2007 near civil war.

Fatah civil servants were then instructed not to work, so Hamas has hired around 40,000 additional staff.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Bahrain accuses Qatar of seizing 15 boats with 20 fishermen

18 September 2017 - 23H40 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, France24, MANAMA

MANAMA -

Bahrain on Monday accused Qatar of seizing 15 boats from the kingdom with 20 fishermen on board, in the latest spat between the neighbours caught up in a diplomatic dispute.

In a statement on its website, Bahrain's interior ministry said Qatar had seized three Bahraini boats with 16 aboard in the past two days.

Coast Guard commander Ala Siyadi said in the statement that this took to 15 the overall number of boats seized and 20 the number of fishermen.

The Bahraini authorities did not specify when the other four people were detained, but the ministry said some boats had been seized in 2009.

Bahrain joined a Saudi-led bloc of nations in breaking diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of links to extremists and getting close to Iran.

The gas-rich emirate flatly rejects the allegations and the diplomatic row, the worst seen in the Gulf for decades, shows no signs of abating.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Gulf diplomatic crisis splits families, dashes dreams

09 August 2017 - 05H55 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, France24, Doha

DOHA -

For Qataris affected by the diplomatic crisis rocking the Gulf, the reality of politics is stark: families divided, assets frozen and dreams put on hold.

Sara, a 29-year-old Qatari, had been poised to start her senior year in business school in Dubai when on June 5, a bloc of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia abruptly cut ties with her country.

"We were suddenly told that we were no longer permitted to attend classes and had to go back to Doha," she said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain accused the Gulf emirate of supporting Islamist extremism and being too close to Riyadh's regional arch-rival Iran.

They ordered all Qataris to leave their territories within two weeks, recalled their ambassadors and citizens from the emirate and banned Qatari carriers from their ports and airspace.

Qatar denied the allegations and denounced what it called a "blockade" aimed at bringing the wealthy emirate to its knees.

Qatari authorities have committed schools and universities to enrolling repatriated students.

But for Sara and many like her, the crisis was personal.

"When someone prevents you from studying, it destroys your dreams," she said.

"One day, overnight, with no warning -- suddenly you're told 'you have to stay home, no school for you'."

- Families divided -

As the standoff drags into its third month, the uncertainty is causing agony, particularly for families of mixed nationality.

Sara, who did not want her surname revealed because she feared the consequences for her relatives elsewhere in the region, has an Emirati mother and a Qatari father.

That is nothing unusual in a region where cross-border marriages are commonplace.

The diplomatic spat has thrown such families into their own crises.

"Half my family is in Dubai, in the UAE. I also have family in Bahrain," Sara said, choking back tears.

When her grandmother fell ill in Dubai, her mother was reluctant to travel to the UAE for fear she would not be allowed to return to her children in Qatar.

States in the Saudi-led bloc have demanded that their citizens leave Qatar, but many have hesitated to do so -- especially those with families in the tiny gas-rich emirate.

Some say they fear punishment by their own governments.

One Saudi mother, who has been based in Qatar for years and asked to remain anonymous, said she was terrified.

She and her two adult daughters are caught between fear of their own government and uncertainty about their future in Qatar.

"We feel trapped," she told us at France24 by phone. "We will have to renew our visas in a year. It's frightening -- we don't know what will happen."

She said she does not want to go back to Saudi Arabia, but fears that if she does not she will be blocked from accessing her late husband's Saudi pension, her only source of income.

Her daughters, who work in Qatar, also want to stay. One has started losing her hair because of stress over the issue.

All three declined to meet France24 journalists in person for fear of the consequences.

Other Qataris, interviewed at a centre in Doha set up to support those affected by the crisis, fear for their assets in other countries.

Nour, who declined to be named in full, owns apartments in Dubai but can no longer access them.

Ahmad and Abdullah own camels worth a fortune, but they are in Saudi Arabia where they are traditionally sent to graze.

Many Qataris are in a state of shock.

Qatari civil servant Ahmad said political issues "should stay between leaders, people should not be involved".

Abdullah al-Marri, another government worker, said he was surprised at the turn of events.

"I didn't think such things could happen between brothers," he said.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

BREAKING: Kuwait expels Iranian diplomats over 'terror' cell

20 July 2017 - 14H40 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Leila Mohamed and Biodun Iginla, France24, Kuwait City

KUWAIT CITY -

Kuwait on Thursday expelled Iranian diplomats and closed some embassy missions after the emirate's top court convicted a "terror" cell of links to the Islamic republic, the foreign ministry said.

The action was taken after a supreme court ruling last month said "Iranian sides helped and supported the cell members," the ministry said in a statement.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told us at France24 that around 15 diplomats were ordered to leave.

Kuwait also ordered the closure of the Iranian "military, cultural and trade" missions, the official said.

It was not immediately known if the Iranian ambassador is among the diplomats ordered to leave.

Last month Kuwait's supreme court sentenced the mastermind of the cell to life in jail and condemned 20 others to various prison terms for alleged links with Iran and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, and plotting terror attacks in Kuwait.

State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, who is also acting information minister, confirmed Kuwait had taken diplomatic action against Iran.

"Following the supreme court ruling on the case... the government of Kuwait has decided to take measures, in accordance with diplomatic norms and the Vienna Convention, towards its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Sheikh Mohammad told us at France24.

The row comes at a time when Kuwait is trying to mediate an end to the Gulf's worst diplomatic crisis in years, after Saudi Arabia and its allies cut ties with Qatar over accusations it is too close to Iran and funds extremists.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah reported on Monday that 14 of the cell's 26 members had fled to Iran by sea.

They were convicted by a lower court early last year but acquitted on appeals several months later and set free.

The supreme court, whose rulings are final, overturned their acquittal on June 18 and sentenced them to between five and 15 years in prison.

Kuwait's interior ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the 14 men were on the run but it said that they had not left the country through official exit points.

The cell was busted in August 2015 and large quantities of arms, ammunition and explosives were seized from them, according to the Kuwaiti authorities.

Kuwaiti courts convicted them of working for Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. They were also convicted of smuggling explosives from Iran.

The only Iranian member of the cell was sentenced to death in absentia by the lower court early last year.

Unlike fellow Sunni-ruled Gulf partners Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Kuwait maintained good relations with its Shiite neighbour Iran.

In February, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Kuwait City a month after the emirate launched a dialogue with Iran in a bid to normalise Gulf-Iran relations.

In March 2011, a Kuwaiti court condemned four people of forming a spy cell for Iran. That led to the expulsion of ambassadors by the two countries but they returned a few months later.

Around a third of Kuwait's native population of 1.35 million is Shiite.

Biodun Iginla, BBC News