Foreign missions assigned to only Kuwaitis: Ministry

KFAS committed to refugee edu program

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 20, (KUNA): All staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are Kuwaiti citizens and they are solely tasked with missions abroad, a ministry official source said on Saturday.

The official source, in a statement, was reacting to an unclear report published by a local newspaper, in the context of replies by Deputy Prime and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Hamad Al-Sabah to an MP’s query and the latter statement that the Foreign Ministry dispatched expatriate personnel abroad on missions “for the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development” (KFAED).

The ministry boasts that its entire staff including diplomats and administrative personnel are citizens; except for a pair, from sisterly Arab states, assigned to perform legal consultative missions, the official source said.

Only the (Kuwaiti) diplomats and the administrative staff are tasked with missions abroad as part of their work, he explained further.

As to KFAED, chaired by Sheikh Sabah Khaled, it is an independent authority.

The fund operations with (aid) benefiting states require multiple travels by its technical team, which includes experts, advisors in engineering, economics and laws.

The technical staff conducts some 23 missions abroad per year, in addition to external tasks by the follow-up teams.

Up to 61 percent of technical team members are Kuwaitis.

Meanwhile, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) on Thursday underlined its unwavering commitment to funding an education programme for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.

An amount of $50 million has been allocated for the project, which is part of a wider $300 million Kuwaiti government grant aimed at assisting Syrians displaced in countries neighbouring their own.

KFAS does not function as a charity but has a wide expertise in the field of education and connections with relevant international organisations, explained Deputy Director General Amani Al-Bedah.

The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that has befallen the Syrian people has urged the move, Al-Bedah said in a statement.