“Monitoring donations collected for Syria is the sovereign right of the state,” MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei insisted, describing the US team’s visit as being ‘untimely.’ “While the United States demands that restrictions be placed on donations made from Kuwait, I came across an incident in Chicago where organizations affiliated to churches were holding fundraising in the street,” he argued on Thursday after attending a meeting with Mohammad Al-Kandari, Undersecretary, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL).
The Islamist MP insisted that the “horrible and catastrophic situation” in Syria called for making donations to the troubled country in Kuwait instead of being restricted to certain charity organizations. Regarding calls made for organizing similar campaigns, Al-Tabtabaei indicated that “fundraising be authorized beforehand by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL), and remain under the Ministry of Interior’s supervision to ensure that the donations reach their rightful destinations.” “If the donations help provide medical and food aid to the Bahraini people, then that is fine, but if they are aimed at inciting violence and toppling the regime in Bahrain, then it violates Kuwait’s foreign policy,” he added.
In the meantime, Badr Al-Awadhi, Director of the MSAL’s Charity Organizations Department, stated that the US Department of State team “raised Kuwait’s efforts in the charity field” in aid as well as efforts to tackle money laundering and terrorism funding. “The US team found no violations committed in charitable work,” Al-Awadhi said in a statement Thursday. He announced “a workshop between the two sides next September.”
