Qatar wants to be Shell's top shareholder: Report

Qatar wants to become the biggest shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell by raising its stake to 7 per cent to strengthen its ties with the oil company and further invest its wealth in western assets, a report said on Friday.

The Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) said Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, was looking to raise its stake from below 3 per cent, which would make it the biggest shareholder, above Blackrock's 5 per cent.

 

Shell declined to comment on the report.

 

In May, MEES reported that Qatar was looking to buy 3-5 per cent of Shell. Shell confirmed at the time that Qatar had bought a large stake.

 

British stock market rules require any party to disclose a holding of over 3 per cent in a listed company. Qatar has not made such a disclosure.

 

QIA has been the most active of the region's sovereign wealth funds in recent years, deploying profit from its natural gas riches into assets ranging from German sportscar maker Porsche to British bank Barclays.

 

A senior executive of the Qatari fund said in April the financial crisis had restricted investment in commodities and he expected a supply-demand gap to emerge by 2016 or 2017.

 

Apart from Shell, QIA has bought stakes in French oil major Total and European utilities Energias de Portugal and Iberdrola.

 

The fund has also been buying into Xstrata, amassing a stake of 12.3 per cent and blocking the London-listed miner's merger with trader Glencore.

 

Shell operates multi-billion dollar natural gas projects in Qatar.

Qaradawi criticises Egypt military council during Friday prayers speech in Qatar

In a speech following Friday prayers in Qatar's capital Doha, Egyptian sheikh Yousef El-Qaradawi highlighted the importance of quick presidential elections after the parliamentary polls in Egypt, adding that the military council should not prolong the transition period.

Qaradawi stressed in his speech that no one should have authority over the Egyptian people, not even the military council, adding that there should be no supra-constitutional principles and that the parliament has the right to set the constitution, and everyone else should abide with what the parliament decides.
In his speech Qaradawi referred to Egypt’s demonstrations in Tahrir Square, describing it as the place where Egyptians go to make their voices heard, adding that “there are some who are deaf so cannot hear and dumb so they cannot understand.” He urged Egyptians to vote for those who are just and honest, and not to give their voices to some just because they are rich or famous. 

Qatar arrests a five-man cell that targeted the Saudi embassy in Bahrain

Bahrain said on Saturday an Iran-linked cell planning to “target” the Interior Ministry building, the Saudi embassy in the kingdom and a causeway linking the island state with neighboring Saudi Arabia had been broken and its members captured.

The state news agency BNA quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying that four Bahraini members of the cell were captured by authorities in neighboring Qatar after they entered the Gulf Arab state by land from Saudi Arabia and found them to be in possession of documents and a computer that included details on vital installations.

The four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country, spokesman General Tareq al-Hasan said.

Hasan said the four arrested in Qatar had been traveling by car from Saudi Arabia. Authorities seized “documents and a computer containing information of a security nature (and) details on certain vital sites,” as well as dollars and Iranian riyals.

“They then confessed that they had left Bahrain illegally at the instigation of others and gone to Iran” to form an “organization to commit armed terrorist acts in Bahrain,” he added.

Sent back to Manama on November 4, they denounced a fifth accomplice, who was subsequently arrested, and the five have been turned over to the judicial authorities.

Earlier this year, Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy crushed pro-democracy protests, spearheaded by the majority Shiites, with the help of troops from other Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia.

Qatar admits it had boots on the ground in Libya; NTC seeks further NATO help

Qatar revealed for the first time on Wednesday that hundreds of its soldiers had joined Libyan rebel forces on the ground as they battled troops of veteran leader Muammar Qaddafi.

“We were among them and the numbers of Qataris on ground were hundreds in every region,” said Qatari chief of staff Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Atiya.

The announcement marks the first time that Qatar has acknowledged it had military boots on the ground in Libya.

Previously the gas-rich country said it had only lent the support of its air force to NATO-led operations to protect civilians during the eight-month uprising, which ended when Qaddafi was felled with a bullet to the head after being captured last week.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Doha of military allies of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), Atiya said the Qataris had been “running the training and communication operations.”

“Qatar had supervised the rebels’ plans because they are civilians and did not have enough military experience. We acted as the link between the rebels and NATO forces,” he said.

Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told the meeting that Qatar had been “a major partner in all the battles we fought.”

He added that the Qataris had “planned” the battles which paved the way for NTC fighters to gradually take over Qaddafi-held towns and cities.

Libyans seek further NATO help

Libya’s interim leader urged NATO on Wednesday to maintain its involvement in the country until the end of the year, though the Western military alliance is keen to wind up its formal mission within days.

“We hope (NATO) will continue its campaign until at least the end of this year to serve us and neighboring countries,” Abdel Jalil told the Conference of Friends Committee made at a Doha conference of military allies of his National Transitional Council.

This request is aimed at “ensuring that no arms are infiltrated into those countries and to ensure the security of Libyans from some remnants of Qaddafi’s forces who have fled to nearby countries,” he added.

The NTC is also seeking help from NATO in “developing Libya’s defense and security systems,” Abdel Jalil told the conference.

With Qaddafi’s son and heir-apparent Seif al-Islam believed still at large and seeking to flee following his father’s killing last week, Jalil said he wanted NATO help in stopping Qaddafi loyalists escaping justice.

But at the Brussels headquarters of the alliance, whose air strikes and intelligence backed the motley rebel forces for eight months at substantial financial cost, NATO officials recalled that their U.N. mandate was to protect civilians, not target individuals.

A meeting of NATO ambassadors, postponed from Wednesday to Friday to allow for further discussion with the NTC and United Nations, was still due to endorse a preliminary decision to halt the Libya mission on October 31, a spokeswoman for the bloc said.

Asked if NATO ambassadors on Friday would stick to the decision to end the mission at the end of the month, spokeswoman Carmen Romero said: “That is the preliminary decision ... The formal decision will be taken this week.”

She added that, for the time being, “NATO continues to monitor the situation on the ground, and retains the capability to respond to any threats to civilians”.

Romero said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was in consultations with the United Nations and the National Transitional Council about plans to conclude the mission.

NATO states took their decision last week based on military recommendations. The commander the Libya mission Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard said on Monday he saw virtually no risk of forces loyal to Qaddafi mounting successful attacks to regain power and NATO believed NTC forces were able to handle security threats.

War crimes complaint

Meanwhile Qaddafi’s family plans to file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alliance’s alleged role in his death, their lawyer said .

The 69-year-old ex-strongman was captured near the city of Sirte in circumstances that are still unclear, but it has been confirmed NATO aircraft fired on pro-Qaddafi vehicles driving in a convoy from the city.

Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who previously worked for Qaddafi’s regime and now represents his family, told AFP that a complaint would be filed with the Hague-based ICC because NATO’s attack on the convoy led directly to his death.

“The willful killing (of someone protected by the Geneva Convention) is defined as a war crime by Article 8 of the ICC’s Rome Statute,” he said.

He said he could not yet say when the complaint would be filed, but said it would target both NATO executive bodies and the leaders of alliance member states.

“Qaddafi’s homicide shows that the goal of (NATO) member states was not to protect civilians but to overthrow the regime,” Ceccaldi said.

“Either the ICC intervenes as an independent and impartial jurisdiction or it doesn’t, in which case force will overrule the law,” he said.

The NTC has announced an investigation into Qaddafi’s death.

International disquiet has grown over how Qaddafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.

The ICC in June issued arrest warrants for Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam and the former regime’s intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, for “crimes against humanity” committed by troops under their orders, using “lethal force” to quell the uprising against his regime.

Local officials said Tuesday that Seif al-Islam and Senussi, who have so far evaded capture, were poised to cross into Niger where they were expected to seek refuge along with other former regime officials.