The Kuwaiti Embassy in Lebanon was evacuated Thursday after receiving an anonymous phone call threatening the mission, embassy and police officials said. According to the AP, the embassy official said the precaution was taken after an unknown caller said the embassy will be targeted with two rockets.
All staff were immediately evacuated, said the official. In Kuwait City, authorities asked Kuwaitis to delay any planned trips to Lebanon.
A foreign ministry official told state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that Kuwaiti nationals who want to go to Lebanon should "think twice" because of the political situation there. Tarek Khaled al-Hamad, the embassy's Charge d'Affaires in Beirut, told the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation it was the first time the embassy received a direct threat which he said "must be taken seriously."
Al-Hamad urged Kuwaitis to be vigilant when moving around in Lebanon.
The new development came a day after a Kuwaiti parliamentary bloc said it had expelled two of its Shiite lawmakers who took part in a ceremony eulogizing top Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated last week in Damascus. The Kuwaiti cabinet has condemned the glorifying of Mughniyeh there and warned this could cause civil strife.
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
