Coca-Cola Says It’s Being Taken off Arab Blacklist

Coca-Cola is about to be removed from the Arab League blacklist for dealing with Israel and plans to open bottling plants throughout the Persian Gulf, a company official said Wednesday.

“We have plans to open bottling plants throughout the gulf,” said Peter Beaumont. He would not release details on the number of plants involved or say when they will open.

In Syria’s capital of Damascus, where the official boycott committee met Wednesday, one participant acknowledged that the Coca-Cola issue was discussed but refused to confirm that the U.S. conglomerate was off the blacklist.

The boycott office, based in Damascus and an arm of the 22-nation Arab League, put the soft drink maker on the list 21 years ago because it did business with Israel.

Coca-Cola bottling plants are being built in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Coca-Cola also is on supermarket shelves in the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. In Saudi Arabia, the latest edition of the kingdom’s official register said the company and its products were no longer on the Arab boycott list.

Carbonated drinks are popular in the arid Gulf where the summer temperatures soar in the vicinity of 122 degrees.

“I wish all our items sold as well,” said a supermarket manager in Riyadh, explaining that almost all of the 200 cases of Coke he just received have sold out within a day.

The Olayan Co. of Saudi Arabia received permission to distribute the soft drink in a market that is dominated by Pepsi, Coke’s traditional rival.