KUWAIT: Kuwait's foreign ministry summoned the top US diplomat in the country over American Embassy posts on social media in "support of homosexuality", it said on Friday. The US embassy in Kuwait had published a picture of an LGBTQIA+ flag on its Instagram and Twitter accounts to mark the start of Pride Month on June 1.

"All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love," the embassy's tweet said. Many in Kuwait took to social media to express their discontent over the posts, saying they went against the country's Muslim beliefs.

Kuwait's foreign ministry said in a statement that it had summoned the US embassy's charge d'affaires James Holtsnider over "social media references and tweets supporting homosexuality". It said a memorandum had been handed to Holtsnider "confirming Kuwait's rejection of what was published and stressing the need for the embassy to respect the laws and regulations in force in Kuwait". The tenure of the former US ambassador to Kuwait, Alina Romanowski, ended in April, making Holtsnider the top US diplomat in the Gulf country for the time being.

Meanwhile, the ministry of foreign affairs disowned a woman who claimed on social media to belong to the Kuwaiti diplomatic corps and who supported transgender people. The woman in question belongs neither to the diplomatic corps nor to the ministry of foreign affairs of Kuwait, according to a press release from the ministry. The diplomatic passport the woman holds is no longer valid, it said, saying she got it when her father was working for a technical office of a government body affiliated to an embassy. The contract of the man was terminated and his diplomatic passport as well as those of his family were invalidated, the statement affirmed.

Homosexuality is illegal in Kuwait, as in most Muslim countries. But in February Kuwait's constitutional court overturned a law that criminalizes "imitation of the opposite sex" in a move Amnesty International said was a breakthrough for transgender rights in the region. The US embassies in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also shared similar posts marking Pride Month. - Agencies