KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s foreign minister will be issued a fine for puffing a cigarette in a non-smoking area, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad earlier this week reposted a photo of Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan smoking at a street-side eatery in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan.
Smoking in all eateries and restaurants was declared illegal in Malaysia in 2019 and further strict measures were introduced in October this year.
“The Foreign Minister’s office has been informed of this matter,” Dzulkefly said on social media platform X on Wednesday, adding that the foreign minister himself wanted to be issued a fine for the offense.
Under Malaysian law, people caught smoking in prohibited areas can face a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit ($1,120).
Mohamad apologized on Wednesday and said he had received a violation notice from health authorities but that the fine amount was not yet determined.
“If it has become a concern and an issue among the public, I would like to sincerely tender my apology,” he was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.
“I will pay the fine, and I hope it will not be too high.”
The photo of Mohamad smoking at the eatery had sparked outrage online this week.
“Whether you’re a minister... or a VVIP, wrong is still wrong. No one is above the law,” said one X user.
Another said: “Lawmakers and (law) enforcement authorities who break laws should be punished more severely than the public.”
Malaysia foreign minister to be fined for smoking at eatery
https://arab.news/zag5t
Malaysia foreign minister to be fined for smoking at eatery
Trump insists he struck Iran on his own terms
- “We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X.
- Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway”
WASHINGTON, United States: President Donald Trump and his team scrambled Tuesday to reclaim the narrative on why he decided to attack Iran, after his top diplomat suggested the US struck only after learning of an imminent Israeli strike.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio alarmed Democrats — who say only Congress can declare war — as well as many of Trump’s MAGA supporters on Monday when he said: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio told reporters.
Administration officials quickly backpedalled, insisting Trump authorized the strikes because Tehran was not seriously negotiating an accord on limiting its nuclear ambitions, and the United States needed to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities.
“No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Tuesday on X.
At an Oval Office meeting later with Germany’s chancellor, Trump went further, saying that “Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they (Iran) were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen.”
“So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
- Had to happen? -
Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway.”
“The president made a decision. The decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide... behind this ability to conduct an attack.”
Critics seized on the muddied messaging to accuse Trump of precipitating the country into a war without a clear rationale, without informing Congress — and without a clear idea of how it might end.
They noted that just two weeks ago, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump again in Washington to take a hard line, in their seventh meeting since Trump’s return to power last year.
Some Republican allies rallied behind the president, with Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, insisting that “No one pushes or drags Donald Trump anywhere.”
“He acts in the vital national security interest of the United States,” Cotton told the “Fox & Friends” morning show.
But as crucial US midterm elections approach that could see Republicans lose their congressional majority, Trump risks shedding supporters who had welcomed his pledge to end foreign military interventions.
“We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a top former Trump ally and a major figure in the populist and isolationist hard right, posted on X.
