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Bahrain Awaits Reception of 9 Million Saudi Tourists Post Coronavirus

The King Fahd Causeway | Asharq Al-Awsat
The King Fahd Causeway | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Bahrain Awaits Reception of 9 Million Saudi Tourists Post Coronavirus

The King Fahd Causeway | Asharq Al-Awsat
The King Fahd Causeway | Asharq Al-Awsat

Bahrain’s tourism and entertainment sector is preparing for the return of visitors, especially Saudi tourists, as Gulf Cooperation Council member states move towards easing COVID-19 preventative restrictions.

Tourists are patiently awaiting the reopening of the King Fahd Causeway which links Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. The bridge was closed on March 7 as part of the precautionary measures taken by Saudi Arabia to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

According to information received by Asharq Al-Awsat, the regular meeting of the Bahrain Coordination Committee pointed to the possibility of the reopening of the bridge on July 27, with the setting of strict protocols to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Concerned authorities took the interruption of the movement between the two countries as an opportunity to complete development projects, the King Fahad Causeway Authority announced the continuation of the implementation of a comprehensive development and improvement plan for both the Saudi and Bahraini sides.

In a tweet, the Authority said that work is ongoing to launch the first phase of an e-payment system for the King Fahd Causeway gates on both sides.

The daily average number of travelers across the King Fahd Causeway is 75,000 passengers, while the Economic Development Council in the Kingdom of Bahrain - a government agency - is working to attract investments and diversify the Bahraini economy.

In 2019, Bahrain welcomed 11 million visitors, the vast majority of them were from Saudi Arabia. Around nine million Saudi tourists made up 88% of the total visitors to Bahrain.

The tourism sector, according to the Economic Development Board, contributes 6.3% of Bahraini GDP, with annual revenues of about $ 13 billion.

"The precautionary closure of the bridge to private vehicles has acted as a catalyst for long-planned upgrade work, while commercial drivers are still able to pass through each day enabling critical continuity for the logistics sector," Abdul Hakim Al Shammari, Chairman of Commercial Market Committee and Board Member of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), said.

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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, as President Joe Biden steps up actions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
The move, which wields the department's most powerful sanctions tool, effectively kicks Gazprombank out of the US banking system, bans its trade with Americans and freezes its US assets, Reuters reported.
Gazprombank is one of Russia's largest banks and is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has been urging the US to impose more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe.
The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kyiv to use US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on the war's 1,000th day.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium Russian banks to curtail the country's connections to the international financial system and prevent it from abusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for the war. It warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain correspondent relationships with the targeted banks "entails significant sanctions risk."
"This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and fund and equip its military," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "We will continue to take decisive steps against any financial channels Russia uses to support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine."
Gazprombank said Washington's latest move would not affect its operations. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Along with the sanctions, Treasury also issued two new general licenses authorizing US entities to wind down transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and to take steps to divest from debt or equity issued by Gazprombank.
Gazprombank is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury said. The Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers, including for combat bonuses, and to compensate the families of its soldiers killed in the war.
The administration believes the new sanctions improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield and ability to achieve a just peace, a source familiar with the matter said.
COLLATERAL IMPACT
While Gazprombank has been on the administration's radar for years, it has been seen as a last resort because of its focus on energy and the desire to avoid collateral impact on Europe, a Washington-based trade lawyer said.
"I think that the current administration is trying to put as much pressure and add as many sanctions as possible prior to January 20th to make it harder for the next administration to unwind," said the lawyer, Douglas Jacobson.
Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said they were studying the impacts of the new US sanctions.
Trump would have the power to remove the sanctions, which were imposed under an executive order by Biden, if he wants to take a different stance, Jacobson said.
After Russia's invasion in 2022, the Treasury placed debt and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms, including Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural Bank.
The US Treasury has also worked to provide Ukraine with funds from windfall proceeds of frozen Russian assets.