Manama: Kuwait will not let in religious figures on the terror list prepared by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
“Some of them are banned from entering Kuwait, but the ban will now be extended to cover all those who are designated as terrorists by the GCC states,” a well-informed source told Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. “The ban by Kuwait will be to avoid political and diplomatic embarrassment with the other GCC countries,” the daily reported on Tuesday.
Kuwait’s interior ministry is planning to set up a special process for granting visas to religious figures, both Sunnis and Shiites, to make sure that people with suspicious records are not allowed to enter the country and thus avoid running into any kind of problem, the source said.
“There is clear coordination through a joint committee between the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs and the Ministry of Interior for dealing with religious figures coming into Kuwait,” the source said. “The interior ministry requires the names of the religious figures who would be invited to Kuwait to give lectures or engage in activities in order to check their records and orientations and decide whether they can be granted the entry visa.”
The GCC, established in 1981, also comprises Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Three of the members, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Egypt this month announced a list of 59 individuals and 12 Qatar-affiliated entities they described as "terrorist supporters."
The countries said in a joint statement that the majority of entities sanctioned are "linked to Qatar and are a manifestation of a Qatari government policy of duplicity.” They accused Doha of policy dichotomy, calling for combating terrorism whilst at the same time overseeing the financing, supporting and harbouring of a vast array of terrorist groups and terrorism- financing networks.”
The list includes holders of nationalities from Qatar, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen and Bahrain.
The entities are six from Bahrain, five from Qatar and one from Libya.
