Comment: How selective are Kuwait's new visa regulations?

A week ago, the Government of Kuwait annou-nced that it was discarding visa requirements for citizens of 34 countries. While this is a welcome move, the vast majority of citizens from Eastern Europe, most Arab countries and South Asian countries are excluded from the new measure. What does this tell us about the Arab outlook?

To be sure, Kuwait is not the only Arab state that requires follow Arabs from producing a valid visa to visit or, more important, to conduct business. In the past, intra-Arab disputes divided the region into various sub-groups, which hardened views towards each other.

The Egypt of the 1950s may have exported Nass-erist tendencies but no longer. Baathist Iraq and Syria were, at various times, hotbeds of ideological trade. Damascus may think that its ideas matter but, in the aftermath of Iraq, few Arabs fear Syrian arguments. Or Libyan, or Algerian, etc…

What is troubling today is that nationals from Canada, the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Portugal and several other European countries as well major Southeast Asian countries, including Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore, and New Zealand and Australia are all given preference. Over nationals from the League of Arab States.

Simply stated, it is embarrassing for Arab authorities anywhere within the League, to request a visa from a fellow Arab and not request one from, say, a Swede. Mind you that Sweden will still require most Arab citizens to acquire a visa but, fortuitously, if one applies for a Schengen visa from the Swedish Embassy, one can travel through Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Spain.

Sweden and its fellow Schengen member-states have had this provision in place since August 1, 1998. It helps but the visa requirement is still there for the majority of Arabs.

No exception

For their part, the Gulf Co-operation Council citizens eliminated all visa requirements for fellow GCC nationals a few years ago, although most require visas from other Arab nationals. Travel is a tedious part of life for many folks around the world and the Middle East is no exception.

If the purpose of the new measures adopted in Kuwait is to accelerate an openness policy that will promote the domestic economy, then why not extend the privilege to Arabs - visitors and businessmen alike - who may want to invest too?

Whereas Kuwait's new programme may be an attempt to open closed doors after the fall of Saddam Hussain in Iraq, opening the door to fellow Arabs would be more beneficial in at least two ways.

First, it would send a signal to everyone that Kuwait - indeed all Arab states - trust their bret-hren. This is not an inconsequential matter since most western bureaucrats point to the visa disparity in continuing their own restrictive policies.

Why should we trust an Egyptian, the Austrian will argue, if that same Egyptian is not trusted by a Kuwaiti? In the aftermath of 9/11, the question is not even raised by the United States, since everyone from the Arab world - along with a few other countries - must now be finger printed and photographed.

Second, opening the doors to fellow Arabs will also bridge the hypocrisy gap that is growing by leaps and bounds.

At the end of the day, a Tunisian national who automatically trusts a French citizen more than he would trust a Lebanese is telling.

Therefore, and to partially fill these two huge gaps, preferences and hypocrisy, it may well behoove Arab states to facilitate short stays for all Arab nationals. There are very efficient methods to identify potential security risks if that is the main reason why this discrimination continues. Otherwise, are there any excuses to treat fellow Arabs with such disdain?

Most Americans or Can-adians who visit Europe automatically receive six-months entry permits with a valid passport.

A number of Arab countries, like Lebanon and the UAE, now provide visas at their international airports. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, all GCC countries, routinely facilitate entry, often for a modest fee - but only for certain nationalities.

I propose that Kuwait and all Arab States automatically grant a six-months entry visit to any citizen from a League of Arab State. There are no reasons not to.

Joseph Kéchichian, author of several books, is an analyst on Gulf and Middle East affairs.