Saudi bloc won’t discriminate against US firms operating in Qatar, says reports
More than two months after the illegal siege of Qatar began, the four blockading nations have said that they will not penalise US companies who continue to do business with Qatar.
Foreign firms have recently become very cautious about their cross border dealings over concerns they could fall foul of the region’s biggest diplomatic involving crisis in years.
Foreign firms have recently become very cautious about their cross border dealings over concerns they could fall foul of the region’s biggest diplomatic involving Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE on one side and Qatar on the other, reported Reuters.
It is understood that the four blockading nations sent a letter to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in July reassuring him that US companies would not be discriminated against as part of the blockade.
The European Union has been given similar ‘official verbal assurances’ by the UAE, the EU Delegation to the UAE told Reuters.
In the letter to Tillerson, the four countries said they valued and intended to maintain their relationships with US companies and that those ties would not be affected by the blockade, according to a source who has seen the letter.
Tillerson had made a four-day visit to the region in July where he met both sides of the dispute and made proposals to help end the crisis.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on July 17 that the UAE would not ask foreign companies to choose between doing business with it or Qatar.
That followed comments from UAE Ambassador to Russia Omar Ghobash to Britain’s Guardian newspaper on June 28 that companies could be made to choose as part of a new round of sanctions on Qatar.
Top US companies have large investments in countries on both sides of the dispute and there are big contracts to be won in wealthy Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
