FM Off to Kuwait Carrying PM's Message for New Emir

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen left Dhaka on Sunday morning for Kuwait with a special message from Bangladesh.

He left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:00 am, an airport source said.

The Foreign Minister, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's special envoy, is likely to meet with the new Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah to relay a message from the Prime Minister to Emir to congratulate him on taking office, apart from expressing condolences on the death of the former Emir of Kuwait, a diplomatic source said.

Kuwait's new ruler, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, took the oath of office in parliament, promising to work for the development and stability of the Gulf Arab state a day after his predecessor, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, died in the United States.

Kuwait's Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah breathed his last at the age of 91 on Tuesday. The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has ruled his country for 14 years and has earned the reputation of being committed to peaceful dialog and unification among the other Gulf States, renowned in recent times for their divisions.

Mild-mannered and admired by his personal relations with others, Sabah was regarded as the 'Dean of Arab diplomacy.'

The foreign minister is scheduled to return home on October 6, said an official.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed profound shock and sorrow at the death of Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.