Qatar’s government is in talks with Iran and Turkey to get food and water supplies, a day after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its biggest suppliers, cut diplomatic and trade links with them, a government official said on Wednesday.
“We are in talks with Turkey and Iran and other countries,” said the official, who spoke to Reuters. He added that Qatar Airways cargo flights would bring the supplies into the country. The official said the country had enough grain supplies in the market, which would last four weeks, in addition to their large strategic food reserves in Doha, reported Al-Jazeera.
“We have no problem with food supplies,” Qatar’s foreign minister told CNN on Tuesday. “We have strategic reserves in place since 2014, we don’t see that life will be affected.”
Turkish exporters are ready to meet the demand for food and water from Qatar, the head of Turkey’s main exporting trade body said on Wednesday.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Maldives, Libya and Yemen cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar, and suspended flights to and from the country.
Qatar has assured its residents it has taken measures to make sure that normal life continues. The country, with a huge expat population of around 2.6 million, is heavily dependent on food imports.
A video released by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce on Tuesday showed fully stocked supermarket shelves, reported Bloomberg.
“There are abundant products in line with a government plan that is activated under such circumstances,” the video’s unidentified narrator said. “The import of all food and consumer goods from different sources and countries continues normally.”
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