The list includes 15 of the 22 that were already ordered closed on Sunday due to the security fears, as well as four additional posts.
But the global travel alert issued by the US State Department on Friday, warning of the dangers of travelling to the Middle East during August, seems to have done little to dampen the tourism sector in the UAE, as it gears up for a busy Eid.
A statement from the State Department clarified there was no new threat and the decision to extend the closure of some diplomatic posts was out of an “abundance of caution” over the Eid weekend.
“Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week…we’ve decided to extend the closure of several embassies and consulates,” said state department spokesperson Jen Psaki.
US missions in Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar El Sharif, Baghdad, Basra and Erbil, which were closed on Sunday, reopened on Monday.
An official at the US Consulate in Dubai said visa appointments would be rescheduled to next week and applicants would be informed by telephone or e-mail.
Applicants for non-immigrant visas who had interviews between August 4 and 7 would need to reschedule appointments after Tuesday, while student visa applicants who had interviews scheduled for the same dates will be able to visit the embassy or consulate after August 11 between 10am and 11am, along with their documentation, the statement said.
Britain said its embassy in Yemen, which had been closed since Sunday, would remain so till the end of Eid, while France said it would extend the closure of its embassy in the Yemeni capital till Wednesday. By 6pm local time, the German Foreign Ministry had not arrived at a decision about whether to extend the closure of its Sanaa embassy past Monday, a spokeswoman told Khaleej Times.
