- As South Korea draws up $10 billion extra budget to create jobs
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.
They say Qatar backs terrorist groups including Islamic State (IS).
The Saudi state news agency SPA said Riyadh had closed its borders, severing land, sea and air contact with Qatar and largely isolating it.
It cited officials as saying it was to “protect its national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism”.
The unprecedented move is being seen as the most serious split yet between powerful Gulf countries, who are also close US allies.
The row comes two weeks after the same four countries blocked Qatari news sites. Controversial comments by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, appearing to criticise Saudi Arabia, appeared online.
The government in Doha dismissed the comments as fake, attributing the report to a “shameful cybercrime”.
In the latest developments:
- The United Arab Emirates has given Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. Abu Dhabi accuses Doha of “supporting, funding and embracing terrorism, extremism and sectarian organisations,” state news agency WAM said
- The UAE state airline Etihad Airways said it would suspend all flights to and from Doha from 02:45 local time on Tuesday
- Bahrain’s state news agency said the country was cutting ties with Qatar because Doha was “shaking the security and stability of Bahrain and meddling in its affairs”
- US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in Sydney, urged the countries to resolve their differences through dialogue.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels also expelled Qatar from its alliance because of Doha’s “practices that strengthen terrorism” and its support to groups “including al-Qaeda and Daesh [also known as IS], as well as dealing with the rebel militias”, according to SPA.
Qatar has provided its warplanes to carry out air strikes against the Houthi rebels.
Qatar, which is due to host the football World Cup in 2022, has so far made no public comments on the latest developments.
In the meantime, South Korea’s government said Monday it has drawn up an 11.2 trillion won ($10 billion) extra budget to create jobs as the new administration took its first steps to deliver campaign pledges.
The Finance Ministry said about half of the stimulus package will be allocated to add 71,000 jobs in the public sector, including teachers, police, firefighters and social workers.
The ministry said the budget will also support the unemployed, women and the elderly. Pay during parental leave, elderly jobs and pays for the elderly will go up. The government also plans to give subsidies to small- and medium-sized firms that create stable full-time jobs, rather than contract jobs, to boost quality jobs in the private sector.
In total, the ministry said the budget plan will create more than 110,000 jobs in the public and private sectors.
President Moon Jae-in promised to put jobs at the center of his economic policy during his election campaign. Asia’s fourth-largest economy may appear to be on track to recovery with recent improvements in exports and economic growth. But those upbeat economic reports mask other problems, such as inequality in income distributions, youth unemployment that hovers near all-time highs and sluggish growth in household income. Recovery in consumer spending has been slow as a result.
The stimulus package is subject to approval by parliament where the ruling party controls 120 out of 300 seats.
BBC with additional report from Abc
