UAE and Bahrain Reopen Airspace After Temporary Closure
The UAE and Bahrain reopened their airspaces after a temporary closure following Iran's attack on the US military base in Qatar on Monday evening.
Flight radar showed UAE flights moving again some hours ago; Dubai Airports confirmed late on Monday night that it had fully resumed operations after a temporary halt.
Bahrain's airspace reopened at midnight local time, following the opening of the airspace in Kuwait and Qatar.
The Gulf countries condemned Iran's attack on the US base in Qatar and emphasized the need to return to dialogue amid the escalation of the Iran-Israel war. Iran launched the attack following the US' attack on its nuclear sites on Saturday.
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Arabian Post
10 minutes ago
- Arabian Post
IMF approves $1.33 billion to support Bangladesh economy
By Saifur Rahman The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the allocation of US$1.33 billion to Bangladesh to support the country's economy that witnessed slowdown since the change of government in August 2024. The allocation is part of the US$4.7 billion combined support package authorised by the IMF in January 2023 under the US$3.3 billion Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and US$1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The decision comes following the conclusion of the combined third and fourth reviews of Bangladesh's arrangements under the ECF, EFF and RSF that approved an extension, augmentation and re-phasing of access funds. However, the latest allocation exceeds the total ECF and EFF package by US$800 million, from US$3.3 billion to US$4.1 billion and brings the total allocation to US$5.5 billion. 'The augmentation approved by the [IMF] Executive Board today brings the total financial assistance under the ECF and EFF arrangements to US$ 4.1 billion, alongside concurrent RSF arrangements of US$1.4 billion. The enlarged enhanced ECF/EFF is aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability, promoting inclusive growth, and protecting the vulnerable. The RSF arrangement has secured fiscal space needed to build resilience against climate risks,' IMF said in a statement. Bangladesh's macroeconomic challenges have increased since the popular uprising in the summer of 2024, which led to the ouster of the previous government, IMF observed in its latest report. 'The timely formation of an interim government has helped stabilise political and security conditions, fostering a gradual return to economic stability. However, the economic outlook has worsened due to persistent political uncertainty, continuation of tighter policy mix, rising trade barriers, and increasing stress in the banking sector,' it said. Bangladesh's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown to US$473.63 billion in the financial year ending June 30, 2025 from US$413.90 billion in the last financial year, IMF data shows. The country's GDP growth rate declined from 7.1 per cent in the 2022 financial year to 3.8 percent this year. However, IMF projects the GDP growth to accelerate to 5.4 percent next year and 6.2 percent in the 2027 financial year. After a fall in real GDP growth to 4.2 percent in FY24 from 5.8 percent in FY23, economic activity slowed further in FY25, the World Bank recently said in its periodic economic update on Bangladesh. 'The economy continues to face significant challenges, including investment moderation, elevated inflation and vulnerabilities within the financial sector. However, external sector pressures have apparently eased, with robust growth in remittance inflows and exports bolstering the current account balance in FY25,' the World Bank said. 'Real GDP growth is projected to further moderate to 3.3 percent in FY25 due to declining private and public investment. Political uncertainty and rising costs associated with borrowing and inputs are expected to constrain private investment growth and keep industrial growth subdued.' Public investment will decline as the government reduces capital expenditure in FY25. The fiscal deficit is expected to remain under 5 percent of GDP in the medium term, with capital expenditure increasing only gradually. Inflation is likely to remain elevated in the near term, it observed.. Nigel Clarke, IMF Deputy Managing Director, said, 'Bangladesh's economy continues to navigate multiple macroeconomic challenges. Despite a difficult environment, programme performance has remained broadly on track, and the authorities are committed to implementing necessary policy actions and reforms. The IMF-supported programmes are helping safeguard macroeconomic stability and protect the most vulnerable, while accelerating reforms to support resilient and inclusive growth. 'Near-term policies should prioritise rebuilding external resilience and reducing inflation. The authorities' recent steps to implement a new exchange rate regime and include revenue-enhancing measures in the FY2026 budget are welcome. A balanced policy mix—anchored in maintaining a tight monetary policy stance, greater exchange rate flexibility, and revenue-based fiscal consolidation—will support efforts to restore both external and internal balances.' Efforts to raise tax revenues and rationalise expenditures—including through subsidy reduction—are critical for creating the fiscal space needed to strengthen social, development, and climate initiatives. Sustained progress in reducing government subsidies to a fiscally sustainable level, along with enhanced public financial management, is essential to improving spending efficiency and mitigating fiscal risks, Nigel Clarke observed. 'Financial sector policy should prioritise safeguarding stability and addressing rising vulnerabilities. Developing a comprehensive, sequenced strategy to guide reforms is an immediate priority, followed by the swift implementation of the new legal frameworks to enable orderly bank restructuring while protecting small depositors,' he said. 'Sustained structural reforms are essential for Bangladesh to achieve its goal of attaining upper middle-income status. Key priorities include diversifying exports, attracting greater foreign direct investment, strengthening governance, and enhancing data quality.' Bangladesh's real GDP is expected to rise gradually in the medium term, if backed by critical reforms. Inflation is expected to gradually subside in the medium term on the back of tight monetary policy, fiscal consolidation and easing import restrictions on key food commodities. Rising trade uncertainties are expected to put pressure on the external sector. 'Bangladesh will need bold and urgent reforms to bolster the financial sector, facilitate trade, and enhance domestic revenue mobilisation,' said Gayle Martin, World Bank Interim Country Director for Bangladesh. Dhruv Sharma, World Bank Senior Economist, added, 'The risks to the outlook are on the downside as uncertainties related to trade, persistent inflationary pressure, weak demand in Bangladesh's major export markets, and intensifying financial sector vulnerabilities could weigh on growth.' Also published on Medium. ADVERTISEMENT Notice an issue? Arabian Post strives to deliver the most accurate and reliable information to its readers. If you believe you have identified an error or inconsistency in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our editorial team at editor[at]thearabianpost[dot]com. We are committed to promptly addressing any concerns and ensuring the highest level of journalistic integrity.
Gulf Today
18 minutes ago
- Gulf Today
Airlines face fresh upheaval as Gulf countries shut airspace
Airlines were on fresh alert late on Monday after the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait closed their countries' airspace temporarily as Iran attacked the Al Udeid US military base in Doha, the latest upheaval to air travel in the Middle East. On Sunday, the US attacked key Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran vowed to defend itself, prompting many carriers to suspend more flights to the Middle East. Explosions were heard over Qatar's capital Doha on Monday evening, shortly after a Western diplomat cited a credible Iranian threat against the US-run Al Udeid air base in Qatar state since midday. United Arab Emirates airspace was also closed based on flight paths and air traffic control audio, according to a post on X by the air traffic tracking website Flightradar24 on Monday. Dubai Flightradar24 showed virtually no air traffic in the Gulf and over Qatar and Bahrain about 1735 GMT in what earlier in the day had been a busy space filled with commercial flights. Carriers had been likely avoiding airports in UAE and Qatar and, to a lesser extent, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, due to concerns that Iran or its proxies will target drone or missile attacks on US military bases in these countries, aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions said. The conflict has already cut off major flight routes, with the usually busy airspace stretching from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean largely void of commercial air traffic since Israel began strikes on Iran on June 13. Airlines have been diverting, cancelling and delaying flights through the region due to airspace closures and safety concerns. Kuwait Airways suspended on Monday its flight departures from the country. Three Air India flights headed to Doha were diverted to other airports due to the airspace closing, according to a source and data from Flightradar24. Up to 150 flights had been scheduled in and out of Doha on Monday, the data showed. IAG's Spanish airline Iberia scrapped an earlier plan to resume flights to Doha on Tuesday after the latest airspace closures. SUSPENSIONS Earlier in the day, airlines had been weighing how long to suspend flights for. Finnair was the first to announce a prolonged suspension of flights to Doha, with cancellations until June 30. Leading Asian carrier Singapore Airlines, which described the situation as "fluid", moved to cancel flights to Dubai through to Tuesday, having previously cancelled only its Sunday service. Air France KLM, IAG-owned Iberia and British Airways, and Kazakhstan's Air Astana all cancelled flights to either Doha or Dubai both on Sunday and Monday. Air France also cancelled flights to Riyadh and said it would suspend flights to and from Beirut, Lebanon until Wednesday included. With Russian and Ukrainian airspace also closed to most airlines due to years of war, the Middle East had become a more important route for flights between Europe and Asia. Amid missile and air strikes during the past 10 days, airlines have routed north via the Caspian Sea or south via Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Added to increased fuel and crew costs from these long detours and cancellations, carriers also face a potential hike in jet fuel costs as oil prices rise following the US attacks. Australia-based Flight Centre Travel Group said it is getting a small number of customer requests to route journeys to Europe away from Middle Eastern hubs. "The most common transfer hubs that we're seeing requested are Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Johannesburg, or even direct between Perth and London," said Graham Turner, CEO of Australia-based Flight Centre Travel Group. AIRSPACE RISKS Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing operational burden on airlines, as aerial attacks raise worries about accidental or deliberate shoot-downs of commercial air traffic. GPS interference around political hotspots, where ground-based GPS systems "spoof" or broadcast incorrect positions which can send commercial airliners off course, are also a growing issue for commercial aviation. Flightradar24 told Reuters it had seen a "dramatic increase" in jamming and spoofing in recent days over the Persian Gulf. SkAI, a Swiss company that runs a GPS disruption map, said late on Sunday it had observed more than 150 aircraft spoofed there in 24 hours. Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information, said US attacks on Iran's nuclear sites could heighten the threat to American operators in the region. This could raise additional airspace risks in Gulf states like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it said. In the days before the U.S. strikes, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, and United Airlines and Air Canada did the same with flights to Dubai. They have yet to resume. Reuters
The National
24 minutes ago
- The National
How Nato can play a positive role in the Middle East
For Nato, the past three years have been consumed by its focus on responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Although the war has been a priority for the alliance, this week's Nato summit in The Hague has already been largely overwhelmed by the repercussions of Israel's unilateral attack on Iran. And with the Saturday follow-up bombing of Iran by the Americans, the largest Nato member state has only deepened this diversion in focus. However, this shift in Nato's strategic focus is prompting a long-overdue consideration of how the bloc should address security challenges in the Middle East. Although any discussion of a role for Nato in the Middle East would challenge perceptions of the alliance's geographical and operational limits as a defensive force, Nato has emerged as much more than a North Atlantic bloc. For several years now, it has embarked on a more ambitious – but much-needed – campaign of 'out-of-area operations'. These have included elements of crisis response, peacekeeping and counterterrorism, each of which was more about meeting the needs of a changing security environment than simply seeking a wider mission or mandate for Nato. Such out-of-area operations have also reflected a broader and more sophisticated Nato focus on the Mediterranean as well as the Middle East and North Africa, and a deepening of Nato's Partnership for Peace engagement with countries across the former Soviet space. In this context, Nato is no longer limited to the North Atlantic. Looking to today's daunting security landscape in the Middle East, currently driven by the Israel-Iran conflict but also defined by the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the imperative for Nato is to respond to security challenges and reject the strict constraints of geography. Nato engagement in the Middle East should not – and most likely cannot – take the form of a new military alliance. Rather, Nato should emphasise local self-sufficiency and capability in addition to forging and fostering regional co-operation among the Middle Eastern states themselves. Although the Israeli and American military strikes against Iran would seemingly challenge this opening for Nato, the need for de-escalation and the necessity to climb down from the focus on military responses to Iran's nuclear programme does offer an opportunity. Even for Iran, such Nato engagement would broaden the context away from co-ordinated Israeli-American pressure to possible multilateral diplomacy by bringing in European Nato members. And even for the US, such Nato involvement would help to address the security concerns about a future restart of a nuclear programme by an emboldened Iran by beefing-up compliance and enforcement of subsequent proliferation safeguards. For the future of security and stability in the Middle East, it is the largely European Nato member states (with a pronounced Turkish role) that will be key to driving Nato engagement The most obvious and natural pool of candidate nations for such Nato engagement comprises those countries with long-standing partnerships with the US, which Washington would be more inclined to support. A key partner in this project of Nato engagement would be Jordan, given the already-robust support for the alliance from King Abdullah II. In fact, the most recent sign of an opportunity for Nato in the Middle East came from Amman, when Jordan agreed earlier this month to establish and host a Nato liaison office in its capital. That decision, which followed a preliminary agreement between Jordan and Nato in July last year, marks the first Nato diplomatic presence in the Middle East. More broadly, Nato engagement would seek to counter sources of regional instability in the Middle East, with a focus on de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict and a smarter approach in finding a lasting resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. However, the current situation regarding Iran offers more peril than promise. As The National 's US affairs columnist Hussein Ibish recently warned in these pages, 'if [US President Donald] Trump joins Israel in striking Iran, the US will enter another forever war', adding that Mr Trump's 'alarming trajectory for his administration's policies' towards Iran, as well as Israel, does nothing to inspire confidence in Washington's management of this crisis. In fact, the US has been moving closer to the Israeli position in recent days, with Mr Trump's rhetoric more aligned with the Israeli leadership's hardline narrative. As much as Israel's attack on Iran was calculated to undermine Washington's diplomatic negotiations with Tehran, it was also designed to force the hand of Mr Trump into supporting the Israeli offensive. And given Mr Trump's decision to bomb Iran, it is now clear that this Israeli gambit was successful. Thus, for the future of security and stability in the Middle East, it is the largely European Nato member states (with a pronounced Turkish role) that will be key to driving Nato engagement. The timing of Nato's entry into the Middle East would be critical, in three distinct ways. First, it would follow a significant decline in power and influence of Iran's proxy forces, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. This further bolsters the chance for empowering these inherently fragile states after the demise and decline of local Iranian proxies. Second, it would come amid the strategic shifts in the Middle East's geopolitical landscape that began in December last year with the fall of Bashar Al Assad's government in Syria and which continues with the possibility of abrupt change within Iran. It is this context that reveals the game-changing nature of the current Middle East, although the volatility and unpredictability of such geopolitical changes present as many threats as opportunities. The third consideration of timing is rooted in the uncertainty regarding the US. With new questions hanging over America's commitment to its own security obligations, both to individual Nato allies and the alliance itself, Nato engagement in the Middle East would also be a response to a dangerous security vacuum. And the unilateral, 'go it alone' nature of the recent American military attack on Iran only demonstrates the danger of blind reliance on the US's commitment to Nato. As already demonstrated by the Trump administration's erratic 'America first' approach to Ukraine, Nato leadership has increasingly become more of an exercise in European strategic thinking, not because of the Americans but despite them. More broadly, Nato now faces a daunting vacuum, whereby geopolitics, like nature, abhors and resists any vacuum in power.
