Qatar Daily News

Israel has apologised to Turkey in an effort to defuse a row over the treatment of its envoy in Tel Aviv.

Ankara had threatened to withdraw the ambassador unless it received a formal apology from Israel by Wednesday evening.

The row began when the envoy was summoned to Israel’s foreign ministry over a Turkish TV series portraying Israeli agents kidnapping babies.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Ambassador Oguz Celikkol to rebuke him over the fictional television series Valley of the Wolves, popular in Turkey.
Read the rest of this entry »

Troubled relations with Israel hit a new low when an Israeli protest against a Turkish television series crossed the boundaries of diplomatic civility and turned into an insult against Ambassador Oğuz Çelikkol, in a scene that appeared to be the design of hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Turkish-Israeli relations have been strained since Israel’s deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip, which left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including many civilians, and brought heavy international criticism upon Israel, including accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations investigation. Since the offensive, Turkish-Israeli bilateral relations have seen exchanges of harsh remarks between Israeli and Turkish officials and crisis incidents despite efforts to tone town the crisis atmosphere.
Read the rest of this entry »

A consortium led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has put the brakes on construction work on the Dubai Metro due to a disagreement over payments, oneof the firms said Thursday.

“We are slowing the pace of the construction for the purpose of negotiating the terms of contracts,” said Toshitaka Kawahara, a spokesman for Obayashi Corp., which is one of the constructors.

The consortium also comprises Mitsubishi Corp., Kajima Corp., and Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi.
Read the rest of this entry »

Qatar is one of the leading investors in the agricultural sector in Sudan, says a former minister of irrigation of Egypt.

Mahmoud Abu Zaid is currently chairman of Arab Water Council. The Arab world is rich in water resources and agriculture. It’s lands are fertile. This is especially true of Sudan which is indeed the food basket of the Arab world.

Such resources are in need of capital-intensive investment as well as management. So the government and the private sector have already begun setting up food growing and processing projects in Sudan.

The investors in Sudan, which are commercial entities and not individuals, are all from Arab countries. Qatar has the largest investment in Sudan’s agricultural sector besides having investment in other areas of economy.
Read the rest of this entry »

Qatar’s new Islamic art museum, designed by famous American architect I.M. Pei, is the latest effort by this tiny, oil-rich nation to compete with rival Gulf countries for international attention and investment.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates also have spent billions during the last decade to transform themselves from small desert towns to sprawling international cities. Much of the initial investment was in business, entertainment and sports, but there has also been a push toward promoting arts and culture.

Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art is the first of ambitious cultural project in the Gulf to be realized. The five-story stone building sits atop an artificial island like an imposing fortress half a mile off the Qatari capital of Doha.

Museum representatives said Pei’s design was inspired by Islamic architectural history, especially the 9th century mosque of Ahmed ibn Tulun in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. The Pei museum opened Dec. 1.

“The Museum of Islamic Art will be the starting place for the Qatari cultural experience,” Abdulla al-Najjar, head of the Qatar Museums Authority, said in a statement.
Read the rest of this entry »

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani told Erdogan that his country desired to organize an international conference on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the coming days, and asked for Turkey’s support for such an initiative, the Anatolian Agency reported.

Al-Thani also said Qatar highly appreciated Turkey’s sensitivity regarding regional peace and the Gaza issue during his meeting with Erdogan at the Prime Ministry building in Ankara.

Erdogan told his Qatari counterpart that Turkey would carry on with its efforts to establish regional peace, adding that the conference planned by Qatar is a positive development.

Egypt is to host an international conference in coordination with Abbas’s Palestinian Authority on March 2 on Gaza reconstruction, which was devastated during the Israeli onslaught. Gaza’s cost has been estimated at $2 billion. Saudi Arabia has said it would donate $1 billion.

Last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit urged Europe to help with fast aid for the Gaza Strip, saying the reconstruction meeting would require damage assesments and the support of the European Union, the United Nations and others.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today ended his two-day official trip to Qatar with a visit to the Islamic Arts Museum here.

He and his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah accompanied by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim and several Cabinet ministers spent about an hour at the museum.

Abdullah showed a keen interest on the various artifacts on display which came from Islamic countries like Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Qatar itself. Among the exhibits included a handwritten Quran and other works of art produced around the 16th century.
Read the rest of this entry »