Amid “Divorce” Talk, Libyan Economic Ties with Qatar Remain Strong

Originally appeared in Libya Wire

In spite of reports of a political row between Libya and Qatar over accusations of Doha’s financial and military support for Libyan Islamist factions, bilateral economic ties remain deep, and in some cases are strengthening. By providing assistance during the revolution, Qatar is poised to make inroads in the strategic energy and projects sectors.

During the revolution, Qatar provided liquidity to the cash-strapped NTC, allowing it to pay salaries and other expenses. In late March 2011, Qatar offered to help market one million barrels of oil for the NTC, delivered fuel shipments and offered loan guarantees to facilitate the purchase of refined products.

With Libyan oil assets – even those under rebel control in the east – under sanction at the time, the Qatari move represented a significant gamble – one that has paid off with reports of a pro-Qatari attitude in Tripoli regarding future oil deals.

The scale of current Qatari investments in Libya stands at about $10bn, much of which date back to the late Gaddafi period. Significantly, two major Qatari-Libyan joint ventures have been given the green light in spite of NTC announcements that they will review investment projects initiated by the previous regime. These include:

• A $2bn 3,000 square meter development of hotels, residential complexes and entertainment facilities that is a joint venture of Barwa Real Estate Company, a subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and Libya’s state-owned Libyan Development and Investment Company; and

• “The Waterfront” a luxury residential complex outside of Tripoli being developed by Al-Libya Al-Qataria (ALAQ), which is a joint venture of Qatar’s Diar Real Estate Investment Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Oyia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Libya’s Economic and Social Development Fund.

Qatar Airways was among the early airlines resuming service to Libya, and currently operates Doha-Benghazi flights four times weekly. Sheikh Hamad’s second official act of 2012 was to appoint Sheikh Mohamed bin Nasser bin Jassim al-Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal Al Thani clan, as ambassador to Libya.

On top of strengthening economic ties, polling data suggest that Qatar retains a deep reserve of popular support in Libya for its role in shoring up the revolutionaries with diplomatic, military and financial support. 94% of Libyans responding to a recent IRI poll in eastern Libya rated Qatar as “highly favorable,” the highest score of any nation.

UAE: Media hub strategy

I’m reproducing a brief I wrote a few months back for Oxford Analytica about the media hub model in the UAE.  At the time Abu Dhabi hadn’t formally launched its big media hub to compete with Dubai Media City, but I think that underscores even more the Dubai-Abu Dhabi rivalry/emulation I touched on in the briefing.  Enjoy:

United Arab Emirates: Media hub strategy bears fruit

EVENT: A new federal media law scrapping jail terms for press violations is nearing approval.

SIGNIFICANCE: The law formalises a decree issued last year by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The United Arab Emirates is realising gains from a decade of investments aimed at developing into a global media hub.

ANALYSIS: The new law is part of a decade-long effort to boost the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) domestic media production and attract foreign media firms. Dubai is now the venue of choice for global media companies seeking a foothold in the region. Sponsoring and advertising in these media advance its strategic goals of becoming a world business and tourism destination (see UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Disaffected threaten Dubai model – May 8, 2008).

Its status as the physical base for media outlets also gives the state coercive political power over content, which it uses on occasion. This is a major success for the UAE’s state-driven development model, and has prompted the wealthier emirate of Abu Dhabi to take similar steps to centralise and promote media. A secondary goal of the media drive is to foster a unified Emirati identity and to strengthen civil society. However, this is hampered by conservative elites and a near total dependence on foreign workers.

America’s Kingdom

I finally got around to this book which I had wanted to read ever since the spirited discussion of it on the short-lived Qahwa Sada.   It’s a history of ARAMCO and US-Saudi relations between the 1930s and mid-60s that aims to debunk myths that the oil company was a benevolent, modernizing actor in the kingdom that provided its workers better conditions than other mining operations in contemporary Iran, Venezuela, etc.

Robert Vitalis re-trained himself in African American Studies to better advance the book’s main argument, that ARAMCO brought 1930s America’s Jim Crow social and labor practices with it when it opened its drilling operations on Saudi Arabia’s east coast.  In place of the standard narrative of ARAMCO bringing the kingdom into the modern world, he argues that progressive Saudis, whose writings he likens to Booker T Washington, had to drag the oil company into the 20^th century through a series of strikes and labor actions that had previously been minimized or unreported.

He digs up a ton of great stuff on the gaggle of Arabist-spies that ARAMCO employed in its government affairs shop ready to turn any given Saudi royal from a ‘forward-looking reformer’ to a ‘profligate drunk’ and back again depending on how the political winds were blowing.

Very well-written book.  It makes other books on Saudi read like the Hardy Boys, and is also a very important historical reference point for current labor practices in the Gulf.

I want my diamond-studded TV

the item

Tom Gara catches this press release published by Gulf News:

Word’s most expensive and ultra luxurious LCD TV launched

Dubai: German company Schaub Lorenz has unveiled the world’s most expensive and ultra luxurious LCD TV in the Middle East market for $130,000 (Dh477,100).

The 40-inch LCD TV is studded with diamonds and white gold. Each diamond is of V VS1 brilliant white colour.

“The eco-friendly TV is made with degradable and reusable components consisting of 47 per cent glass, three per cent aluminium and 10 per cent iron allowing the TV to be 45 per cent more recyclable than a normal TV with many plastic parts.

The TV is completely hand-made – piece by piece construction – without screws and welding. The television screen functions are all activated by feather touch,” said Dr Jean Shahdadpuri, Director, Nikai Group of Companies.

I have nothing to add.

Some Links

• Egypt Blogs America: 8 Egyptian bloggers in the U.S. at election time.  A project sponsored by the Adham Center at AUC.
• “HR 362 gets 8 new co-sponsors” Bad news from Iran Nuclear Watch.
• The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart.  Not quite as tight as Absurdistan but still fantastic.  Worth the price for these seven words alone: “… and sausages circled overhead like Sikorsky choppers…”
• Lynch on Egypt:  ” I think that one of our greatest failings – and I include myself here – was to encourage these young activists to take bold steps when we had no ability or intention of protecting them from the consequences.  I am only partly reassured by the fact that several of those bloggers told me after they had been arrested and tortured that they wanted the attention and support, and were willing to pay the costs.  But democracy activism in Egypt today is  a dangerous business, and Americans should think carefully about encouraging these young activists if they will not protect them from the consequences.”
• Free Wifi in Cairo:  Do you hate that most coffee shops now make you buy cards for wifi access and give out your mobile number and email address to mobinil or link.net?  Do you want to support the few remaining cafes that still offer free, anonymous wifi?  If so, please check out and update this map of places that offer either free or anonymous paid wifi access.

UAE: The geopolitics of excess

courtesy of the Friday in Cairo cartography team

Let’s read these two articles together.  First from AP second from The Times:

U.S. plans $7 billion missile-defense sale to UAE

The Bush administration is planning to sell the United Arab Emirates an advanced U.S. missile defense system valued at up to $7 billion that could be used to defend against Iran, people who have attended briefings on the matter said on Monday….

Kenneth Katzman, an expert on the Gulf at the Congressional Research Service, said the UAE has been eager for a “sophisticated antidote” to Iran’s missile capabilities.

“The UAE has been concerned for many years about possible retaliation against it for U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities,” he said.

For Iran, Katzman added, UAE could be an attractive target because of its billions of dollars of infrastructure investments….

The potential $7 billion sale would include anti-missile interceptors, firing units, associated radar sites and training, among other things, a congressional staff member said.

Dubai plans $200bn canal to bypass Strait of Hormuz

Dubai is studying plans to build a $200 billion (£114 billion) mega-canal that would allow oil tankers to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. The Gulf emirate is understood to be considering the idea as a means of reducing Iran’s influence on the flow of oil from the region.

About 17 million barrels of oil a day are transported through the strait, equivalent to 40 per cent of the world’s traded oil.

However, the proposed canal project would be fraught with difficulty. Oil tankers weighing more than 300,000 tonnes would need a route through the mountainous region between Dubai and its Indian Ocean coast….

Iran has hinted repeatedly that, if threatened, it would target commercial vessels in the strait. The navigable tanker lanes are only six miles wide and any disruption could severely limit oil exports from the Gulf.

Engineers are understood to have presented the plans for a 112-mile canal to the Dubai Government. It would link the Gulf coast with the port of Fujairah on the Indian Ocean coast, crossing the Hajar Mountains with a network of enormous locks. The massive cost and complexity of the project is thought to have stalled a decision on the canal, but it could be a popular initiative with other Gulf states….

Abu Dhabi is building a pipeline to Fujairah so its oil can avoid Hormuz. It will carry about 1.5 million barrels a day, but will not have the capacity to transport oil from Saudi Arabia or other producers.

There’s a good new report on the state of sea-based missile defense here.

UPDATE: Pete over at Middle East Media has some important background info on the missile deal and reactions in the Arab press.