Six years in the making, Qatar\u2019s first-ever underground railway system has opened to the public<\/a>, as the Gulf nation prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n The Doha Metro Red Line started partial operations on May 8, running along the coast from al-Qassar district in the capital, Doha, to the southern city of al-Wakrah. Thirteen out of the 18 stations on the 40-kilometer Red Line route are currently operational.<\/p>\n Charges that four oil vessels were attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in mid-May have amplified fears across the region<\/a> about the escalating tensions between Iran and the West.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia said that two of its oil tankers had been sabotaged, and a Norwegian company reported that one of its tankers was damaged in the same area, near the Strait of Hormuz. The fourth ship belonged to the UAE. Since the attacks, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has said that they were the work<\/a> of \u201cnaval mines almost certainly from Iran,\u201d while Iran has denied any involvement.<\/p>\n Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels carried out multiple drone attacks<\/a> on Saudi oil facilities on May 14, a day after Saudi Arabia said two of its\u00a0oil tankers had been damaged\u00a0in an act of sabotage, ratcheting up tensions in the region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, claimed responsibility for the drone strikes\u00a0on Twitter<\/a>, saying that they were a response to Saudi \u201caggression\u201d and \u201cgenocide\u201d in Yemen.<\/p>\n At the end of May, Saudi Arabia\u00a0held summits for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)<\/a>, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the Arab League.<\/p>\n In a joint statement at the end of the OIC summit, the leaders called on countries that have moved their embassies<\/a> to Jerusalem to rethink their strategy, which they said constituted \u201ca serious violation of international law and international legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n On May 19, Washington announced that it would lead a conference<\/a> in Bahrain in June to reveal the first part of President Donald Trump\u2019s long-awaited proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u00a0<\/span>In a joint statement with Bahrain, the White House said the gathering in Bahrain\u2019s capital, Manama, would give government, civil, and business leaders a chance to rally support for economic initiatives that could be possible with a peace agreement. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that Palestinian leadership was not consulted prior to announcing the conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" QATAR OPENS FIRST METRO LINE Six years in the making, Qatar\u2019s first-ever underground railway system has opened to the public, as the Gulf nation prepares to host the 2022 World Cup. The Doha Metro Red Line started partial operations on May 8, running along the coast from al-Qassar district in the capital, Doha, to the… Continue reading GCC News Roundup: Qatar opens new metro line, Houthi drones strike Saudi oil facility (May 1-31)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":465413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication_archive_type":[297],"class_list":["post-465412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","publication_archive_type-issue-brief","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465415,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465412\/revisions\/465415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465412"},{"taxonomy":"publication_archive_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_archive_type?post=465412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATTACK ON OIL VESSELS RAISES TENSIONS BETWEEN IRAN, US<\/h2>\n
YEMEN\u2019S HOUTHIS CARRY OUT DRONE STRIKES ON SAUDI OIL FACILITIES<\/h2>\n
SAUDI ARABIA HOSTS SUMMITS FOR OIC, GCC, AND ARAB LEAGUE<\/h2>\n
US TO REVEAL ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PLAN IN BAHRAIN<\/h2>\n