Emirates vs. Air Canada

[nolimitholdem]

DUBAI, Oct 10, 2010 (AFP) - Canada’s ties with the United Arab Emirates will be "affected" by the lack of an agreement to expand aviation links between the two countries, the UAE’s ambassador to Canada was quoted as saying Sunday.

"The UAE is disappointed that despite intensive negotiations over the last five years, the UAE and Canada have been unable to arrive at an agreement on expanding the number of flights between the two countries," Mohammed Abdullah al-Ghafli was quoted as saying by the official WAM news agency.

"The fact that this has not come about undoubtedly affects the bilateral relationship," the ambassador said.

The report said that the existing six commercial flights a week fell short of the economic needs and growth potential of both Canada and the Gulf state.

The Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi could not be reached for comment on Sunday, while UAE foreign ministry officials were also not immediately available.

But according to Canadian media reports, the country may have to withdraw from a "secret" military base near the UAE transport hub of Dubai as a result of the disagreement.

"The Canadian government is now preparing to relocate forces from the United Arab Emirates to somewhere such as Cyprus rather than give in to what it considers unreasonable demands from the host country," The Globe and Mail reported on its website on Friday in reference to the commercial flights issue.

The Vancouver Sun said Saturday that "Canadian soldiers and aircrew have only 27 days to pack up and clear out of Camp Mirage, the not-so-secret airbase in the United Arab Emirates that Ottawa established seven years ago to support military operations in Afghanistan."

The daily’s website said the UAE suspended a memorandum of understanding on the base on Tuesday, after the Canadian government balked at a demand that "Dubai-based Emirates Airlines and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways... each be granted daily flights between Toronto" and the UAE.

About 27,000 Canadians live in the United Arab Emirates, which is one of Canada’s biggest economic partners in the Middle East with bilateral trade valued at about 1.5 billion dollars per year, WAM cited Ghafli as saying.

© Copyright (c) AFP


Read more: UAE warns Canada ties may be hit by lack of air deal

Where's that 767 guy who was posting in this very thread about how the UAE wasn't threatening to expel Canada from Minhad?

Oh and wasn't he crowing about how "payback was a bitch" with regards to the Blackberry nonsense?

October 2010 Last updated at 15:12 Share this pageFacebookTwitterShareEmailPrint
United Arab Emirates will not ban Blackberries

Those who use the popular service in UAE will be pleased the ban is lifted
The United Arab Emirates has said it will not go ahead with plans to ban Blackberry services, following talks with maker Research in Motion.

It had threatened to suspend all services from 11 October.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority confirmed that it is satisfied services on the devices are now compliant with its security needs.

It had said Blackberries posed a risk because the network was encrypted and data stored abroad.

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The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement: "All Blackberry services in the UAE will continue to operate as normal and no suspension of service will occur on October 11, 2010".

The TRA also acknowledged "the positive engagement and collaboration of Research In Motion (RIM) in reaching this regulatory compliant outcome".

Research in Motion (RIM) has found itself at the centre of a series of rows with countries unhappy with the way data is stored on the device.

India and Saudi Arabia have threatened similar bans.

RIM has always made it clear that it would not change the architecture of its service to placate countries wishing to extend their surveillance powers.

"It is unclear what will have changed in the nature of the RIM service," said Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum.

"As such we can only hypothesise that some kind of workaround has been agreed in terms and conditions between the UAE regulator and local carriers ...to gain access to e-mails sent over the Blackberry service," he said.

RIM said in a statement that it would not discuss the details of the discusisions with the TRA. "RIM confirms that it continues to approach lawful access matters internationally within the framework of core principles that were publicly communicated in August," it said.

In August RIM sought to reassure customers that it would only allow governments to access services "in the strict context of lawful access and national security" and that no greater access than that given by rival firms would be granted.

It also stated that it would make no changes to the security architecture for Blackberry business customers.

At the time it said: "Contrary to any rumours, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys."