Mohamed Alabbar is the chairman of Emaar Properties has announced that Emaar has suspended work on all major projects due to COVID-19, describing them as “nonsense being peddled by people in the media who have no sense.”

Reuters have reported that Emaar had put off all their major projects including Dubai Creek Harbour due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But Alabbar said: “This is not even assumption or rumor; it is total lies and nonsense. And I am amazed that in this time when the whole world is on lockdown, people can come up with this kind of thing to damage us. I won’t allow it. Let’s be clear. There is no virus on any of our sites. There are no cases of COVID-19. None of our sites have stopped working.”

He also said that “of course we not working at full capacity on every site. But you don’t need to be an award-winning analytical journalist to know that. You just need to look out the window and see that we, like most of the world, are on lockdown. Airplanes are not flying. Most of America is at home. Even Boris Johnson is in intensive care. Do you not think that would probably mean some things are slowing down?”

Alabbar said that like most major companies, Emaar had taken essential cost-cutting measures to navigate it through the crisis.

He mentioned: “All I know for sure is that this will end, and we will get through this and be back. But nobody knows when. But in the meantime, I won’t allow anyone to destruct Emaar or the UAE by fake claims. There is meaningless being peddled in the media by people who have no sense.”