Manama: Kuwait has allowed three Syrian regime diplomats to return to Kuwait City and resume their diplomatic tasks, nine months after they left.
“The Syrian diplomats left of their own will and they are now returning also of their own will,” Khalid Al Jarallah, the foreign ministry undersecretary, said. “There is a large Syrian community in Kuwait and they need follow-up and attention. We believe that the diplomats will look after the interests of their community,” he said in a statement reported by the media.
Around 130,000 Syrians are believed to live in Kuwait. A major problem they have to face is the renewal of their passports in order to be able to extend their residency visas in Kuwait and avoid turning into illegal residents.
Al Jarallah added that Kuwait would not reciprocate the diplomats’ return move and would not send diplomats to the Syrian capital Damascus.
“This is a totally different issue and the return of Kuwaiti diplomats to Syria is not on the agenda right now,” he said.
Kuwait recalled all diplomats and other staffers at the diplomatic mission in Damascus in March 2012.
A foreign ministry official said that the decision was in line with the stances of the other member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) towards the deteriorating security situation in Syria.
Syria shut down its embassy in Kuwait in March, alongside its diplomatic mission in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
