Kuwaiti activists given heroes' welcome

Kuwait City: Kuwait lawmaker Waleed Al Tabtabai has vowed to return to Gaza with humanitarian aid hours after he was released by the Israelis who had detained him in a deadly raid on Freedom Flotilla.

"I will go back to Gaza to support the Palestinians. What the Israeli forces did was pure piracy and I refused to answer questions during their investigation with me," the MP said.

"The Israelis beat me up, handcuffed me and did not allow me to use the bathroom," he told the media upon his arrival in Jordan before his transfer alongside 15 Kuwaitis to Kuwait City.

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The activists who included a lawyer and reporters working for Kuwait news Agency (Kuna) were welcomed at the airport at around 10 am by Jassem Al Khorafi, the parliament speaker, Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad, the prime minister, officials and relatives in a joyous reunion.

The trip home started slightly before midnight when the activists were transported in a bus to the Jordanian borders where they were welcomed by the Kuwaiti ambassador in Amman. An Emiri plane flew them as well as other activists from other country to Kuwait City.

Kuwait's parliament on Tuesday urged the government to withdraw from the Arab peace initiative in retaliation for the Israeli attacks on the Gaza-bound humanitarian fleet.

The lawmakers said that Israel had demonstrated that it was not interested in peace efforts.

A Kuwaiti government spokesman said that they would look into the recommendation.

The initiative was proposed by Saudi Arabia at the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 as a way to end the Arab-Israeli conflict in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.