WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced it was admitting Qatar into its visa waiver program, allowing visa-free travel by Qatari citizens for up to 90 days starting no later than Dec. 1.
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State said in a statement that Qatar is the first Gulf country to be admitted to the US Visa Waiver Program, commending Doha for meeting the strict security requirements to join.
The tiny Gulf state has played a key role in mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials in relation to the war in Gaza and the release of hostages captured by the Palestinian Islamist group in its Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel.
An administration official told reporters the US has a strong defense relationship with Qatar and praised Doha for taking the lead on pressing the Taliban on human rights and providing assistance in Sudan, among other issues.
“Qatar’s fulfillment of the stringent security requirements to join the Visa Waiver Program will deepen our strategic partnership and enhance the flow of people and commerce between our two countries,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
For admission to the program allowing visitors traveling for tourism or business purposes to stay up to 90 days without a visa, Washington requires countries to meet requirements on issues such as counterterrorism, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, document security, and border management.
Qatar put forth a “significant whole-of-government effort to meet all program requirements,” including on partnering to share information on terrorism and serious crimes, according to the statement.
Qatar is the 42nd member of the program, with nations added infrequently. Croatia was added in 2021 and Israel last year. The program requires countries to allow US citizens similar visa-free travel.
US citizens can currently travel to Qatar without a visa, but starting on Oct. 1 they will be allowed to stay for up to 90 days instead of 30.
US admits Qatar into visa waiver program
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US admits Qatar into visa waiver program
- Qatar is the first Gulf country to be admitted to the US Visa Waiver Program
- “Qatar’s fulfillment of the stringent security requirements to join the Visa Waiver Program will deepen our strategic partnership,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
Iran’s Pezeshkian says Tehran ready to work with world powers to resolve nuclear standoff
- Iran has brokered ongoing secret talks between Russia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels to transfer anti-ship missiles to that militant group, three Western and regional sources said, a development that highlights Tehran’s deepening ties to Moscow
UNITED NATIONS: Iran is ready to end its nuclear standoff with the West, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, while calling for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine through dialogue.
Iran’s clerical establishment hopes to see an easing of US sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
Then-President Donald Trump abandoned Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran. Efforts to revive the pact have failed.
Tehran’s relations with the West have worsened since the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 and as Tehran has increased its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Pezeshkian, a relatively moderate politician who took office in August promising a pragmatic foreign policy, criticized Iran’s arch-foe Israel for what he called “its genocide in Gaza.”
“It is imperative that the international community should immediately ... secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and bring an end to the desperate barbarism of Israel in Lebanon, before it engulfs the region and the world,” he said.
An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior commander of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon on Tuesday as cross-border rocket attacks by both sides increased fears of a full-fledged war.
“We seek peace for all and have no intention of conflict with any country ... Iran opposes war and emphasizes the need for an immediate cessation of military conflict in Ukraine,” Pezeshkian said.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with the Islamic state.
Iran has brokered ongoing secret talks between Russia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels to transfer anti-ship missiles to that militant group, three Western and regional sources said, a development that highlights Tehran’s deepening ties to Moscow.
Lebanon calls Biden’s remarks on conflict with Israel “not promising”
- "The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon”
WASHINGTON: Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib expressed disappointment on Tuesday with US President Joe Biden’s remarks about the escalating crisis between Lebanon and Israel, but said he held out hope that Washington could still intervene to help.
“It was not strong. It is not promising and it would not solve this problem,” Habib said of Biden’s speech at the United Nations earlier in the day. “I (am) still hoping. The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon.”
Habib spoke during an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
US Navy replenishment ship operating in Mideast was damaged in an incident, officials say
- Rumors about the Big Horn’s condition began circulating early Tuesday after images posted to a website tracking shipping called gCaptain showed flooding purportedly on board the Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A US Navy replenishment ship operating in the Middle East sustained damage in an incident which is under investigation, officials said Tuesday.
The damage to the USNS Big Horn comes after the oiler has supplied the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and remains in the region amid heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s ongoing strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A US Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters yet to be made public, said the damage happened in the Mideast, but declined to elaborate on its location. A photo released by the US military dated Sept. 5 showed sailors aboard the Lincoln receiving supplies from the Big Horn, while another on Sept. 11 showed the Big Horn alongside the Lincoln. The Lincoln is patrolling the Arabian Sea.
The official said the Big Horn’s crew was safe and there was no sign of an oil leak from the vessel.
Another US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the vessel was being supported by private tugboats and an assessment was still ongoing for the vessel.
Rumors about the Big Horn’s condition began circulating early Tuesday after images posted to a website tracking shipping called gCaptain showed flooding purportedly on board the Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler. The website described the Big Horn as having “ran aground ... and partially flooded off the coast of Oman.”
Though the Lincoln is powered by a nuclear reactor, its strike group has vessels powered by fossil fuel that need to be resupplied at sea. The aircraft aboard the Lincoln also need jet fuel. The Big Horn and other ships like it also provide other supplies.
Oilers like the Big Horn typically have around 80 civilians and five military personnel on board.
It remains unclear if there are any other replenishment ships like it immediately available in the Mideast. An AP survey of publicly released military images of similar replenishment ships run by the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command showed none in the Mideast in recent months. The command declined to comment.
UN Security Council to meet on Lebanon on Wednesday
- Slovenia said fighting in Lebanon will be discussed
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council will meet at 6 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Wednesday on the escalation in fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, said Slovenia, president of the 15-member council for September.
French extremist admits role in kidnapping of aid workers in Yemen
- Amelie, one of the hostages, had already testified at the trial that she recognized Cherif as the translator with the captors
- Cherif was linked to a Paris extremist cell and was named in the enquiry into the January 2015 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
PARIS: A French extremist linked to the perpetrators of the 2015 massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo made a surprise admission Tuesday that he was involved in the 2011 kidnapping of three French aid workers in Yemen.
Peter Cherif, 42, also known as Abou Hamza, is being tried in Paris for terrorism-related offenses committed between 2011 and 2018, when he allegedly belonged to Yemen-based militant group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Arrested in Djibouti in 2018, he had previously denied involvement in the kidnapping.
But on Tuesday he told the court that “I accept the facts, I was the translator” between his fellow French and their captors.
“I regret being involved in all this,” he said, claiming that he was not aware of the plot to kidnap the aid workers and that they were better treated because of his presence.
Even before his unexpected admission, prosecutors had established that he was in Yemen in May 2011 when the three aid workers from the Triangle Generation Humanitaire charity were abducted as they returned to their lodgings in the village of Seiyun.
They were released in November 2011 after spending their captivity in desert caves.
Amelie, one of the hostages, had already testified at the trial that she recognized Cherif as the translator with the captors, who spoke neither English nor French.
Cherif was linked to a Paris extremist cell and was named in the enquiry into the January 2015 attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, due to his regular contact with the perpetrators, Said and Cherif Kouachi.
Twelve people were killed in the massacre that sent shock waves across France. The brothers died in a shootout with police two days later.
Investigating judges believe Cherif recruited the brothers into AQAP and had knowledge of the plan to carry out an attack in France.
According to several witnesses, AQAP advised foreign fighters in Yemen to return to their countries of origin to stage attacks.
In 2020, Cherif was called as a witness during a trial over the 2015 attacks and claimed to have had “nothing to do” with the massacre.
In 2004, Cherif left Paris to fight in Iraq and was captured by coalition forces in the ruins of Fallujah a few months later.
He escaped to Syria in 2007, eventually reporting to the French embassy in Damascus and was deported in early 2008.
He went on trial in early 2011, but before he was sentenced to five years in prison, he fled to Yemen where he joined AQAP.
He spent seven years there before traveling under a false identity with his wife and two children in 2018 to Djibouti, where he was arrested and handed over to France.
The trial is scheduled to last until early October.
