SHAWWAL 6, 1440 AH SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2019 28 Pages Max 49º Min 30º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17851 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Spate of fires around Kuwait Ex-cop sentenced to 12.5 years US, Mexico hammer out last-minute Thiem ends Djokovic history bid, 3 during Eid Al-Fitr holidays 8 for killing of Australian woman 11 deal to curb migration, avoid tariffs 28 faces Nadal in French Open final Hashem: Charge expats for using beaches, causeway Lawmaker claims expats litter parks, pour cooking oil down sewers By A Saleh US envoy: Israel KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem yesterday warned the government of worse things to come unless the govern- has ‘right’ to annex ment acts and resolves the demographic imbalance by deporting marginal laborers, fighting visa traffickers and imposing fees on expat beachgoers. She also West Bank land demanded holding the minister responsible accountable JERUSALEM: The US ambassador has said Israel for alleged environmental violations by expats and col- has the right to annex at least “some” of the occu- lecting fees from expats using Jaber Causeway to pre- pied West Bank, in comments likely to deepen vent “the erosion of its infrastructure”. Palestinian opposition to a long-awaited US peace “I have repeatedly warned, and still do, of the exis- tence of this number of expats - three million compared plan. The Palestinians have rejected the plan before to only one million citizens, which erodes Kuwait’s it has even been unveiled, citing a string of moves by infrastructure,” Hashem said. “Imposing more fees on US President Donald Trump that they say show his expats is a must, especially after the chaos and endless administration is irredeemably biased. They are like- amounts of waste they left behind at various beaches ly to see the latest comments by US ambassador to and parks during the Eid holiday,” she charged. Israel David Friedman as new nail in the coffin of a She wondered about law enforcement and the role peace process that is already on life support. the environment police is supposed to play in the form In the interview published by the New York of collecting immediate fines from violators. “All coun- Times yesterday, Friedman said that some degree of tries collect fees for using beaches, including the coun- annexation of the West Bank would be legitimate. tries of those expats themselves, where they pay the “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the fees,” she claimed, questioning why this was not right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West applied in Kuwait. Hashem also alleged that expats dis- Bank,” he said. Senior Palestinian official Saeb pose used cooking oil in drains in Hawally, Khaitan, Erekat has said any such policy would be Farwaniya and Salmiya, which causes environmental Continued on Page 24 KUWAIT: A family watches the sunrise on the beach on the last day of Eid Al-Fitr’s long weekend yesterday. — Photo by pollution in the absence of any action by the environ- Yasser Al-Zayyat ment authority. Witnesses say the assault was led by News in brief Sudan arrests the feared Rapid Support Forces, who have their origins in the notorious Iran selling oil ‘unconventionally’ Janjaweed militia, accused of abuses in protest leaders the Darfur conflict between 2003 and TEHRAN: Iran is keeping up oil sales through 2004. Yesterday, RSF members and sol- “unconventional” means to circumvent US sanc- after crackdown diers cleared major Khartoum streets of tions, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in roadblocks put up by protesters. an interview published yesterday. “We have unoffi- KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces Demonstrators had used tyres, tree cial or unconventional sales, all of which are secret, have arrested two prominent rebels and trunks and rocks to erect the makeshift because if they are made known America would an opposition leader, their aides said barricades, which the generals had immediately stop them,” he said. Zanganeh also yesterday, just days after a bloody warned would not be tolerated. said Iran has no plans to leave the Organization of crackdown crushed hopes for a swift Sudan’s military council seized power the Petroleum Exporting Countries despite being democratic transition. The three men in April after ousting longtime dictator treated like an enemy by some fellow members. were arrested after meeting Ethiopian Omar Al-Bashir on the back of months- “Iran has no plans to leave OPEC...and regrets that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Khartoum long protests against his three-decade some members of OPEC have turned this organiza- Friday as he sought to revive talks rule. Since then, it has resisted calls from tion into a political forum for confronting two between Sudan’s ruling generals and protesters and Western nations to trans- founding members of OPEC, meaning Iran and protest leaders on the country’s transi- fer power to a civilian administration. Venezuela,” Zanganeh said. — Agencies tion. That came days after men in mili- Several rounds of talks with the demon- tary fatigues smashed up a weeks-long strators finally broke down in mid-May. protest sit-in on Monday, leaving dozens In a bid to revive the negotiations, the KHARTOUM: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (left) meets the chief of Sudan’s rul- Qatar amir to visit White House of demonstrators dead. Continued on Page 24 ing military council General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on Friday. — AFP WASHINGTON: Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will meet US President Donald Trump next month as the country continues to astrous 2018 World Cup campaign. endure the two-year economic squeeze from its Ozil marries The Turkish leader arrived in the early US-backed Gulf Arab rivals, the White House evening for Friday’s ceremony at a luxury announced Friday. The amir will meet Trump in with Erdogan hotel on the banks of the Bosphorus to see Washington on July 9 for talks on regional politics, the former Arsenal midfielder marry his security and counterterrorism cooperation, fiancee, former Miss Turkey Amine Gulse. according to the announcement, amid a US effort as best man A smiling Erdogan and his wife Emine to build pressure on Gulf power Iran. — AFP were seen standing next to the young cou- ISTANBUL: Former German internation- ple as their marriage was formalized. al football Mesut Ozil was married in After 92 appearances for Germany, Istanbul on Friday with Turkish President including a key role in the 2014 World Hundreds of Tehran restaurants shut Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his best man. Cup victory, Ozil suddenly quit the nation- The 30-year-old Ozil, who has Turkish al squad last July, accusing German foot- TEHRAN: Iranian police have shut down 547 family roots, sparked controversy last year ball officials of racism. Ozil announced in restaurants and cafes in Tehran for not observing when he was photographed with Erdogan, March that he had asked Erdogan to be ISTANBUL: Arsenal’s German midfielder Mesut Ozil and his fiance Amine Gulse stand “Islamic principles”, the capital’s police chief said raising questions about the footballer’s his best man. German Chancellor Angela next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine during their wed- yesterday. The infractions included “unconvention- loyalty to Germany on the eve of their dis- Continued on Page 24 ding ceremony at the Four Seasons Bosphorus Hotel on Friday. — AFP al advertising in cyberspace, playing illegal music and debauchery”, Fars news agency reported. Also yesterday, the head of Tehran’s guidance court, which deals with “cultural crimes and social and without an official mosque. The project moral corruption”, called on Tehran citizens to First Athens began in 2007 amid strong opposition from the influential Orthodox Church of report cases of “immoral behavior” by texting a Greece and nationalist sentiment against designated phone number. — AFP mosque to open neighbouring Muslim Turkey. Greece was under occupation by the Ottoman Empire by September for centuries. There have been several laws Dubai bus crash kills 17 passed on creating an official mosque in ATHENS: Greece’s leftist government on Athens since 1890. DUBAI: Twelve Indians were among 17 people Friday said an official mosque in Athens, Supervised by the Greek state, the who were killed in Dubai when their bus crashed over a decade in the making, would open minaret-less mosque is situated in the indus- into a road sign after entering a restricted lane, by September to satisfy a longstanding trial area of Eleonas, near a refugee camp. police and the Indian consulate said. The bus, demand by tens of thousands of Muslims in There are an estimated 300,000 Muslims in the greater Athens area. Mosques in Greece registered in Oman, was making its way into the capital. “We hope the first prayer will be in September,” Education Minister were repurposed or demolished following the Dubai from Muscat with 31 passengers of differ- Costas Gavroglu said after inspecting the 1821 war of independence from the Ottoman ent nationalities on board when the accident nearly-completed complex that can Empire. The only officially sanctioned occurred on Thursday night, Dubai police said in accommodate some 350 people. The mosques in the country are in the northern a tweet. It blamed the Omani driver, who was mosque’s imam, Zaki Mohammed, said border region with Turkey where up to moderately injured, for the crash saying “at times construction had been completed but staff 150,000 members of a Muslim minority live. a small mistake or negligence can lead to adverse required for its operation would be hired Elsewhere in the country, Muslims - many of ATHENS: A boy walks in front of a new mosque on Friday, the first official place of wor- consequences”.