Manama: Kuwait has denied reports that Israeli nationals have been allowed into the country and challenged those who support the allegation to present their evidence.
"The reports that Israeli citizens using Israeli passports have been allowed into Kuwait are baseless and lack credibility," the interior ministry said.
"Anyone seeking to visit Kuwait using a passport that has an Israeli stamp is barred from entering the country. Whoever has evidence about Israelis allowed into the country should present it to the relevant authorities to avoid confusion," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday evening.
Last month, Eldad Beck, an Israeli journalist with Israel’s daily Yedioth Aharonot said that he was able to enter several Arab and Muslim countries without revealing his identity. However, he did not mention Kuwait as one of the countries he visited.
The journalist said that he hid his true identity by using a non-Israeli passport and strolled unnoticed in marketplaces and mosques and sat at several cafés.
The interior ministry's denial came in the middle of a bitter standoff within Kuwaiti society over the merit of the participation of three Kuwaiti athletes in a world championship race in Poland alongside three Israeli runners.
Several MPs have blamed the sports authorities for their participation, claiming that it was helping the normalization of ties with the "Zionist entity."
However, sports officials said that they were not aware of the Israeli participation and did not receive instructions to withdraw.
In another denial, the interior ministry said that media reports about shots fired at a Kuwaiti border patrol from Iraq were not true and insisted that relations between the two countries were "good and cordial."
The Kuwaiti-Iraqi borders have been secure, and there is full cooperation between the border forces on maintaining security on both sides of the frontier, the ministry said.
