Kuwait: Commercial Vessels Banned Entry For Transporting Goods In & Out Of Israel
Kuwait has introduced a decree that prohibits commercial vessels carrying commodities from and to Israel from the country’s territorial waters. Rana Al-Faris, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and Minister of Public Works has declared this ban yesterday.
The ban is imposed on vessels coming from ports to unload part of the cargo in Kuwait’s ports whenever they are transporting goods mentioned in the latest ban.
The move follows a bill passed by the Kuwaiti parliament in May 2021, restricting nationals and ex-pats residents of Kuwait from visiting Israel and reflecting any kind of expressions in support of Israel.
In the same month, Martin Dvorak, the Czech ambassador to Kuwait, had reportedly been summoned after he showed support for Israel online when it conducted airstrikes over Gaza. Later on, he sought an apology for his post.
Kuwait continues to maintain its stance in opposition to normalization with Israel. In 2020, after the Abraham Accords had been duly signed between Gulf States – Bahrain and the UAE – and Israel, 37 Kuwaiti lawmakers forced the government to condemn this move.
A spokesperson for Hamas, Palestine’s resistance movement, Hisham Qasim, welcomed the new law yesterday. The law is an application of Kuwait’s policies that aims to support Palestine and its cause. He also requested other countries to follow the approach Kuwait is following by imposing restrictions on Israeli maritime traffic and trade.
Reference: alaraby.co.uk
