UAE Company Agrees to Delay Ports Takeover

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 2/23/06 | Liz Sidoti, AP

[Wolfstar]

10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates volunteered late Thursday to delay part of its $6.8 billion takeover of most operations at six U.S. ports to give President Bush more time to convince skeptical members of Congress that the disputed deal poses no security risks.

The surprise announcement relieves some pressure from a standoff between President Bush a Congress controlled by his own party that had threatened to try to block the deal over concerns about the UAE's purported ties to terrorism.

Under the offer coordinated with the White House, Dubai Ports World said it will agree not to exercise control or influence the management over U.S. ports pending further talks with the Bush administration and Congress. It did not indicate how long it will wait for these discussions to take place.

The company said it will move forward with other parts of the deal affecting the rest of the world.

"It is not only unreasonable but also impractical to suggest that the closing of this entire global transaction should be delayed," Dubai Ports said in a statement.

[Wolfstar]

Hopefully, this news has not already been posted. I did a search and didn't find anything.

[darkwing104]

Yep, this is news.

[Wolfstar]

The news broke pretty late here in the U.S. Many folks won't hear it until morning.

[prairiebreeze]

bump and no, this is the first I've seen of this announcement.

Good catch Wolfstar, ping!

[CobaltBlue]

It's news. Welcome news, too, from my perspective.

Thanks for posting.

[TomGuy]

A state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates

That is the bothersome part of this whole thing, however.

[Echo Talon]

If anyone from the UAE is reading this I apologize for the way your being treated by some in my government.

[CobaltBlue]

Ping

[afnamvet]

No surprise actually.

[Bush gal in LA]

Is the AP the only ones reporting this news? Has this been confirmed by anyone else yet?

[admiralsn]

While I feel better about this sale after actually hearing some of the details, I do feel this self-imposed delay will go far towards calming the waters and allowing some in this debate take a more rational approach in deciding what is best here.

[Echo Talon]

singapore has state owned terminals in California. Kuwait also has terminals in Newark.

[A CA Guy]

Which means they are willing to wait for the hysteria to go away and then still be available to buy the business.

[oceanview]

we've been talking about it on the other threads for about 30 minutes.

[McGavin999]

Sort of makes our congress look pretty silly. As sinkspur mentioned on another thread, I hope they remember to bring crayons to the hearings. Maybe congress will be able to figure things out if someone draws them some pretty pictures.

[muawiyah]

Look, somebody let Thompson, a French government company, buy RCA.

We probably ought to prohibit foreign state ownership of assets in the United States.

[prairiebreeze]

Yes, I think there will be some relatively brief hearings, things will calm down and the deal will progress.

[Echo Talon]

Is the AP the only ones reporting this news? Has this been confirmed by anyone else yet?

Dumb Scarborough said the company confirmed it.

[Dad yer funny]

the West Coast will get it

[CWOJackson]

The press insists in furthering their mis-statements regarding this issue.

"...it will agree not to exercise control or influence the management over U.S. ports..."

They will not have any control or influence of the management of any U.S. port, only the management of a commercial enterprise located within U.S. ports.