Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for December 5, 2022
Newsline: Pakistan Planning to Sell Embassy’s Building in the US
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Marriyum Aurangzeb, has announced that the federal cabinet has authorized the proposal of auctioning off one of the two Pakistan Embassy buildings in Washington, US. She made this announcement during a press conference and stated that one of the buildings was fully renovated, but the second one’s restoration work was only 60 percent completed. In addition, the US government had removed the diplomatic status of that building, Information Minister added. Moreover, she claimed that the government has paid thousands of dollars in taxes for the building, which is currently not in use. Therefore, the cabinet approved the decision to auction the partially renovated building in a transparent manner. (https://propakistani.pk/2022/12/01/govt-planning-to-sell-embassys-building-in-the-us/) Furthermore, she stated that the previous bid for the building was $4.5 million, but now $6.9 million has been offered, which is significantly greater than the earlier one.
Newsline: Israeli diplomat in China hospitalized in ‘prison conditions’ for COVID
An Israeli diplomat infected with COVID in China has revealed how he was forced to stay in a prison-like medical facility, where he was held in isolation for 10 “surreal” days. Israeli Consul-General in Shanghai Eddie Shapira said that he was sent to the facility “reminiscent of a prison” after coming down with mild symptoms. “I got sick with COVID and I recovered completely,” he wrote on Facebook. “I didn’t have any serious symptoms. The problem is that I caught it in the most wrong place on earth – in China.” The diplomat said that with even mild cases like his, the country treats patients as if it’s the early days of the pandemic. According to Shapira, “nothing could have prepared [him] for the experience,” even after working through the pandemic the past two years. (https://nypost.com/2022/12/05/israeli-diplomat-eddie-shapira-hospitalized-for-covid-in-china/) COVID patients are cordoned off in separate, designated hospitals for 10 days until they have fully recovered. Shapira described the hospital room where he received treatment as similar to an aquarium.
Newsline: Suspect arrested in Pakistan Embassy attack in Afghanistan
A member of the militant Islamic State group has been arrested in last week’s shooting attack targeting the Pakistani Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, the spokesman of the Taliban government said. (https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/IS-suspect-arrested-in-Pakistan-Embassy-attack-in-17631613.php) The attack, in which shots were fired at the embassy from a nearby building, triggered anger in Pakistan, and increased tensions between the two South Asian neighbors.
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