Habib Toumi

Diplomatic incident as Turkish envoy is under stress

Speculation mounted in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that Turkey’s ambassador to Israel had asked his superiors in Ankara to transfer him to a new posting following his undiplomatic treatment by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.

Quoting Jewish Army Radio, Israeli media reported that Ahmet Oguz Celikkol had asked his superiors in Ankara to transfer him to a new posting and that the envoy was expected to be posted to a major European capital.

A senior official at the Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that Celikkol put in a request with the Turkish Foreign Ministry to leave his current post, Ynetnews reported.

However, the Jerusalem Post said that a Turkish embassy diplomat in Tel Aviv denied the report, expressing surprise and saying that Celikkol did not ask for a new posting. continue reading…

MP Adel Al Mouawda

A leading Bahraini lawmaker has expressed “tremendous concerns” that claims about Al Qaeda in Yemen threats to world security would turn out to be as baseless as the ones made about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

“Al Qaeda in Yemen has been given incredibly impressive proportions which it does not deserve,” Adel Al Mouawda, an MP representing Al Asala, said. “It seems that the new dimension is being used by the US and subsequently by Britain to achieve their hegemony over the region, including regional and international waters. I am singularly afraid that the whole Al Qaeda issue and threats would end up like the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,” the Salafi leader said in a statement on Tuesday.

Al Qaeda should be condemned for its crime against humanity, but the superpowers had played a major role in boosting its capabilities. continue reading…

Patriot missile being launched

Tension is heightening up dramatically in the Gulf amid plans by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to reinvigorate their security agreements in anticipation of a military confrontation in the region and Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani criticised blasting the US deployment in the Gulf as a “puppet show” and a “political fraud.”

According to a Kuwaiti daily, the GCC countries are working on invigorating a security agreement in anticipation of any deterioration of the situation in the region in the wake of the recent Iran-US escalation.

“The heads of the security forces in the GCC are planning a meeting to coordinate their efforts to confront any emergency following the announcement that the US is deploying a missile shield in the Gulf and moving ships into the Gulf to protect allies against constant Iranian threats to undermine security in the region,” Al Jareeda reported on Tuesday, quoting unnamed “well-informed” sources. “It is obvious that any declaration from Washington or Tehran on the situation of the region is taken seriously.” continue reading…

Wajeeha Al Baharna

A Bahrain women’s rights group has stepped up pressure to make the citizenship issue among the top priorities in the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“Temporary solutions or measures in addressing this critical issue and alleviating the suffering of Bahraini woman married with foreigners are not enough and will not help lift the ban on passing on the citizenship,” Wajeeha Al Baharna, the coordinator of the national campaign for citizenship, has said. “There is an urgent need to amend Article Four of the Bahrain Citizenship Law in lines with Bahrain’s constitution and CEDAW to empower Bahraini women to get their rights as full citizens without any discrimination or bias,” she said in a letter to the Women and Children Committee in the upper chamber, lobbying for greater support.

Under the law, Bahraini women do not have the right to transmit citizenship to their children, a clause that has left several children born to Bahraini mothers and non-Bahraini fathers with the Bahraini citizenship and the social, economic, and civil rights that it confers. continue reading…

Kuwait City

A Kuwaiti social affairs and labour ministry official has denied media reports claiming that visit visas can be turned into work permits.

“There is no truth to the reports that family visit or tourism visas can be changed to residence permits,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying by Al Siyassah daily on Tuesday. “Such a possibility is confined to business visits provided that the visa holder has an advanced qualification. The condition is to ensure strict limits on the number of unskilled and marginal labourers in the country”

A Kuwaiti daily last week, quoting immigration sources, said that Kuwait would start applying the new visa-swapping measures on Sunday.

According to the report, immigration officers were getting ready to implement the new policy allowing visitors to change their visas to residence visas. The only condition for the transfer, according to the report, was clearance from security officers. continue reading…