Qatar said on Tuesday that contacts with the United States and Iran are continuing in an effort to bring the two sides back to negotiations.
"Our officials are on the phone on a daily basis trying to workshop ideas, workshop ways of getting back to the negotiations," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said at a weekly media briefing.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Al Ansari urged dialogue and diplomacy, saying the priority is "to go back to the freedom of navigation and to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz the way it was before the war."
Regarding the latest U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, Al Ansari called them unilateral and reiterated that Qatar prioritizes a diplomatic settlement.
"We are urging the parties to engage fully in the talks and the mediation that is led by Qatar and Pakistan and the other regional players and we find that to be the only way out of this crisis," he said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced a new wave of sanctions to further isolate Iran, warning of what he called "an economic D-Day."
Qatar says contacts ongoing to revive US-Iran talks
The second phase of the 140th China Import and Export Fair has opened after the organizer demolished and rebuilt about 25,000 booths in mere 76 hours, a feat achieved through smart tools such as intelligent logistics and AI-powered drawing review that turned setup work from a "battle of brawn" into a "battle of brains."
Also known as the Canton Fair, the biannual event is China's largest and longest-running comprehensive trade fair and a widely watched barometer of the country's foreign trade.
This year's autumn session is being held in three phases, running through Nov 4 in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province. The ongoing second phase runs from Friday to Oct 27.
The Canton Fair completed a full-hall switch between its first and second phases in just 76 hours from 18:00 on Oct 19, when the venue closed, to 22:00 on Oct 22.
The turnaround covered the entire chain: taking down exhibits, removing display fixtures, dismantling booths and cleaning the halls, followed by building the next phase's booths, installing fixtures, arranging exhibits and setting up the venues.
Dismantling and rebuilding about 25,000 booths for the second phase within a three-day window placed extremely high demands on scheduling and coordination, as every step was closely interlinked.
"At this edition of the Canton Fair, we rolled out smart services covering logistics, exhibit handling, and vehicle access and parking, along with AI-powered booth design and drawing review. Compared with manual review, which used to take 30 to 40 minutes per drawing, AI review now returns a result in about one minute," said Huang Li, manager of the general management department at China Foreign Trade Center (CFTC), the organizer of the fair.
To boost transport efficiency, this edition of the Canton Fair introduced a new smart traffic management system. Exhibitors book entry slots via their phones, and the system centrally schedules each exhibitor's entry gate and time to prevent congestion among transport vehicles.
"Setting up ran smoother than before. We used the smart traffic management system, and our exhibits reached our booth smoothly," said Liu Tao, an exhibitor.
Canton Fair enters 2nd phase after 76-hour extreme makeover using smart tools
Canton Fair enters 2nd phase after 76-hour extreme makeover using smart tools
