BANGKOK, 4 February 2012 (NNT) – The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that the United States revoked the terrorism alert in Thailand. Nine countries still warn their citizens of possible terrorist attacks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday met with the ambassadors of more than 40 countries to explain the terror alert issued by the United States on 13 January. Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said he had ensured the envoys that Thailand was not negligent in tackling possible violence. More stringent security measures will be urgently implemented to restore confidence, he added.
A Lebanese suspect alleged of being a member of Hezbollah was arrested in Bangkok on the same day that the U.S. first issued the warning. The U.S. is among the ten countries that revoked the terror alert; the others include China, Israel, Greece, Germany, France, Norway, Brazil, the Netherlands and Denmark. The nine countries which have not yet lifted their warnings include the U.K., Australia, Austria, Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, Japan, Romania and Canada. Japan said it needed official confirmation from Thailand before deciding whether to cancel the terror alert.
The permanent secretary urged the nine countries to reconsider their travel advisories based on the current situation in Thailand and the Thai government’s handling of the matter.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Australia is preparing to revoke the alert while the U.K. has made clear that it cannot do so since the warning is aimed at informing citizens.
There seems to be a lot of backlash in the Thai media about governments issuing these kinds of warnings for Bangkok. Thailand is by no means a haven for Islamic terrorists but these recent events certainly haven’t done the place any favors either.
ReplyDeleteThe scary thought for me is if any of these loonies decide to go ahead and plant a bomb somewhere like K.Sarn road or the like. We all know how devastating it was when the bombs went off in Bali and something on the same scale in a tourist area is always going to be carnage.
Of course the already fragile business environment is going to suffer as well we have friends that were considering company registration Thailand and they are starting to think better of it due to the recent events. This is a shame as any kind of foreign investment is good for the country in such hard economic times.