Did not see that coming!

Five monarchies on 25 May 1981 formed the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates all border on the Persian Gulf. They have discussed moving towards a common currency.

The tiny conservative state of Qatar is not a member of the GCC, and for now, Oman and Kuwait are the only two of the five to maintain relations with Qatar. The other three and Egypt have cut all relationships with Qatar (including air flights).

As you may know, Qatar Airways has their NYC headquarters in Donald Trump's building, Trump Tower.


An interesting twist as DJT just went to Riyadh to ask the Arabs to do their utmost to control international terrorism.


Qatar Airways has an extensive widebody fleet, and without the ability to fly to four Arab countries, it may expand greatly in Europe and Northern America
13 Airbus A330-200 228-272 seats
13 Airbus A330-300 259-305 seats
4 Airbus A340-600 372 seats
13 Airbus A350-900 283 seats
6 Airbus A380-800 517 seats
9 Boeing 777-200LR 259 seats
34 Boeing 777-300ER 335 seats
30 Boeing 787-8 254 seats

Quote: Pacomartin

.....They have discussed moving towards a common currency.

The tiny conservative state of Qatar is not a member of the GCC,

I think it was a brilliant piece of brinkmanship on Iran's part. https://syrianperspective.com/2017/06/whats-behind-the-qatari-maneuver-its-gas-my-boy-gas-deraa-alqaeda-devastated-as-syrian-army-reinforcements-arrive-to-kick-them-out-syrian-army-blasts-isis-east.html

Also; http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/06/the-gcc-states-led-by-saudi-arabia-will-collapse-into-oblivion.html#more

What will be interesting is the changes to QR flight paths required with them no longer able to use the airspace over these countries. Will be sure to cause a fair bit of disruption.

Flight immediately suspended

Quote: Aussie

What will be interesting is the changes to QR flight paths required with them no longer able to use the airspace over these countries. Will be sure to cause a fair bit of disruption.

It would certainly affect flights to Africa. But also flights to Southern Europe.



Image from Flight Radar 24 yesterday

If the airspace restrictions are actually enforced it will affect more than just those flights. It will affect ALL flight. Ie they won't be flying anywhere at all.

https://centreforaviation.com/insights/analysis/qatar-airways-landing-and-airspace-restrictions-in-middle-east-damages-key-source-markets-348493

Bahrain is majority-Shiite, but the al-Khalifa monarchy is Sunni.

Qatar's state religion is the Salafi version of Sunni Islam, which it shares only with Saudi Arabia. So the conflict is not really religious in nature, It may be entirely an economic squabble since Qatar has massive natural gas reserves.

Yeah, what the hell was that?

More important, how is Golden Boy going to escalate it into a major conflict?

Quote: Nareed

Yeah, what the hell was that?

More important, how is Golden Boy going to escalate it into a major conflict?

There was a terrorist attack in Iran today which Iran blames SA for, ISIS already took credit . So Iran is blatantly saying that SA backs ISIS. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-07/iran-blames-saudi-arabia-terrorist-attack-vows-revenge

The war has already begun, for the books it will depend on who tells the story. Will the US move Centcom, or attack Qatar?

The oddities began when I first learned of these developments on, of all places, aviation blogs.

But one, Airways Magazine, has already identified potentially terrible consequences for the west. Qatar airways, one of the Middle East Big Three, has a big truckload of widebody and narrowbody orders with both Boeing and Airbus. We're talking billions worth of orders. What happens if that goes away?

Called it: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-11/how-to-fix-trump-s-saudi-qatar-blunder