I'm very curious as to how this incident made it into the public domain so quickly, there are loss of separation incidents frequently all over the world but they don't usually make it into the public domain so quickly if at all.
Who leaked this to the news agencies and what is the agenda for doing so, I feel for the controller involved, he or she would be feeling bad enough without reading in the papers that their mistake "nearly cost the lives of 600 people". I know news has to be dramatic to make an impact but as far as I can tell there was no collision risk and the controller picked up their mistake very quickly.
"There are a lot of places in the world that that recommend offsets. (See Africa). Honestly, with the accuracy of GPS's these days, it is one more defence mechanism to avoid swapping paint in the cruise."
I wouldn't advise this when flying through UAE airspace, the tracks are separated by less than 6nm at some points so if you offset you could get close to traffic that is right beside you!