Kuwait: Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Thursday received his Omani counterpart Bader Al-Busaidi, holding talks on bilateral relations and efforts to propel ties to greater levels.

Amid the talks, both top diplomats agreed that bilateral relations have made tremendous headway as of late, proving equally beneficial to the Gulf Arab neighbors, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Current happenings around the world were among the topics discussed, chief among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while the ministers collectively underlined the need to provide the Palestinians with maximum protection at a time where Israeli occupation forces have stepped up their "acts of aggression," they said.

Kuwait and Muscat are "equally" committed to ensure that the Palestinians fulfill their rights to statehood, based on the 1967 borderlines with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state, added the statement.

The talks also yielded a number of new bilateral deals running the gamut from environment and trade to education, it said. - KUNA