US Embassy in Dhaka authorised to reopen The US has announced to - TopicsExpress



          

US Embassy in Dhaka authorised to reopen The US has announced to resume the normal operations on Monday in nine of its embassies, including the one in Dhaka, and consulates which were closed on Sunday, but extended the closure of its 19 diplomatic posts in other countries till August 10. The posts in Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah, and Erbil, that normally remain open on Sunday but were closed yesterday, are authorised to reopen for normal operations today, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to extend closure of several embassies and consulates, including a small number of additional posts,” Psaki said. She asserted that this was not an indication of a new threat stream, but merely an indication of US commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect its employees, including local employees, and visitors to its facilities, she said. “Posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis are instructed to close for normal operations today through Saturday, August 10,” Psaki said. Meanwhile, the CNN said an intercepted message among senior al-Qaeda operatives in the last several days raised alarm bells that led to the closing of embassies and consulates across the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday. The CNN said it has agreed to a request from an Obama Administration official not to publish or broadcast additional details because of the sensitivity of the information. Several US officials also emphasised they have been watching growing threats emerging from Yemen for weeks, the news channel reported. “I think we’re doing what’s necessary to protect our people. We’re also protecting our sources. And, I think that’s exactly the right step,” Congressman Adam B Schiff told the CNN in an interview. “We know a lot more about the when than the where. You can tell that from the breadth of the closures across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. But the ‘when’ was very specific in terms of a Sunday (yesterday). Obviously, that may continue and the closures may continue. The travel warning is more extensive,” he said. “But this is not the usual kind of chatter, not the more generalised death to the Americans or death to great Satan, but had to be corroborated or come from very reliable sources to take this kind of action,” Schiff said. According to the lawmaker, given the breadth of the closures, one can tell there’s concern about seeing something like one saw a year ago, when there were riots and attacks at multiple embassies around the world, reports PTI. “There has to be a lot of concern as well with the recent prison breaks in Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere where a lot of al Qaeda figures were released,” he said. “I think we’re taking the precautions we should. We obviously have our military forces deployed in a different way than we did a year ago so that they can take rapid action if necessary. But the concern is a broad one. Hopefully, we’ll fend off this attack,” Schiff said. (CNN)
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 07:34:02 +0000

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