According to a foreign ministry official, Kuwait is set to open a number of new embassies, with several current and new ambassadors to be appointed to serve at these, whilst other serving ambassadors are reportedly set to be recalled and reappointed to posts in the foreign ministry.
On a separate issue, the foreign ministry insider also revealed that the upcoming GCC foreign ministers’ meeting, scheduled to take place in Riyadh next month, will feature discussion of the disagreement amongst GCC member states over the mooted membership of Jordan and Morocco.
The insider said that the membership of the two non-Gulf nations had not yet been fully decided upon since some GCC member states are strongly opposed to granting them full membership, wishing instead to limit them to membership of only certain committees, such as the educational, health, social and sports committees, giving them the same status as Yemen and Iraq.
The insider suggested that a report containing a number of recommendations on the issue is currently being prepared for discussion during the Riyadh summit.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has reportedly uncovered over 2,000 illegal work visas which were issued with the help of corrupt labor department employees who did not register them on the ministry’s system.
The visas were issued for individuals working for a number of Kuwaiti visa traffickers and others from other GCC member states. A MSAL insider said that those responsible would be referred for legal prosecution once the proper evidence has been assembled.
Kuwait praised for generous contributions to assist Somalis
Kuwait Times: The Executive Directors of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) thanked the State of Kuwait this week for its "generous contributions" to assist the people of Somalia in coping with the horrendous drought and famine there.
In a letter to the Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi, WFP’s Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, expressed her "deep appreciation" for Kuwait’s "generous contribution" of $ 250,000 to the Programme’s emergency food operations to assist the drought-stricken people in Somalia and those forced to flee to neighboring countries.
This contribution highlights Kuwait’s leading role in providing humanitarian and development assistance worldwide. The WFP is honoured to pursue and strengthen its partnership with the State of Kuwait and its institutions," Sheeran stressed in her letter to Ambassador Al-Otaibi.
The WFP head continued, "I would like to reiterate my most sincere thanks and appreciation to the people and Government of the State of Kuwait for supporting the very important operations in Somalia," adding, "Thanks to the support from the State of Kuwait, WFP will be able to continue the Support to 1.9 million people in Somalia with life-saving nutritious food.
Moreover, she added, the WFP is helping an increasing number of Somali women, children and men who have fled to neighboring countries in search of food, noting that there are currently 490,000 Somali refugees in Kenya and 150,000 in Ethiopia.
In a separate letter, addressed to Ambassador Al-Otaibi, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake also expressed his agency’s "appreciation" of Kuwait’s contribution of $ 250,000 for humanitarian assistance and aid to Somalia.
Lake assured Ambassador Al-Otaibi in the letter that the contribution would be utilized as indicated by the Kuwaiti Government. At a pledging Conference held on Tuesday evening in support of the UN’s development activities for 2012, Ambassador Al-Otaibi announced the Kuwaiti contribution of about $ 6 million to the various UN agencies. Twenty member states pledged a total of approximately $ 265 million during the event.
