It is stunning to exist in the "culture" that allows one to blatantly lie to a news source solely to save face. Perhaps Mr. al Bastaki actually believes what he says?
"We have cargo flights operating today and I expect to be operating a cargo flight tomorrow afternoon..." Mr. al Bastaki says.
Interesting how this story was written on 7th March and Mr. al Bastaki himself was present at the meeting 3rd March wherein it was announced the AOC had been suspended pending corrections of many serious ("Level 1") issues. Putting appropriate post-holders in place was merely one of the issues raised. If any cargo flights actually are operating, they are not being operated by MIDEX aircraft. They are sub-contracted.
Review the comments section of the above-referenced "Arabian Supply Chain" article and you will see others mentioning the same things.