The US consulate in Dubai was closed to public business yesterday after a security alert from local authorities, officials said.
A US official said a warning of a possible threat was made by security forces in the United Arab Emirates, but the official did not give further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media on the subject.
The spokesman for the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi, about 100km southwest of Dubai, was not immediately available for comment. A Dubai police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said local authorities had warned US diplomats about a possible security threat. But the official declined to give any further details.
The consulate, located in a Dubai high-rise tower that includes businesses and other diplomatic offices, was closed for US citizen services and visa interviews, said an announcement issued by the embassy late on Tuesday.
The statement did not elaborate on the nature of the security information. It was issued just hours after US President Barack Obama took the oath of office.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are part of a confederation of seven city-states making up the United Arab Emirates, a close US ally.
Dubai is a major financial center in the Middle East and home to large numbers of expatriates from around the world.
There have been no major terrorist incidents in the United Arab Emirates, but officials in neighboring Saudi Arabia have waged large-scale crackdowns on suspected al-Qaeda networks and other militant groups there, after attacks on foreigners in Saudi Arabia in recent years.
In June, Britain raised its terror warning to the highest level for its citizens living in the Emirates, saying at the time that “attacks could be indiscriminate and could happen at any time.”
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
RSS