Chinese shipping firm suspends services to Qatar

Beijing June 12 (IANS) China s COSCO one of the world s largest shipping companies on Monday announced the suspension of services to and from Qatar over an ongoing diplomatic row after nine Arab countries cut diplomatic ties with Doha.

Bahrain Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates Egypt Yemen Libya Maldives Mauritius and Mauritania last week severed diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism reports Efe news.

In view of an uncertain situation and to protect the utmost interests of our clients we decided to suspend shipments from/to Qatar with immediate effect the company said in a notice to customers.

With this move COSCO joins other companies in the region including Taiwan s Evergreen and Hong Kong s OOCL which have already suspended services to the Arab country.

The Chinese company said the suspension will not affect vessels that had already sailed towards Qatar s main port Hamad before the diplomatic crisis erupted although there could be delays in delivery.

--IANS
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