DHAKA – Bangladesh on Sunday made it clear that it has dropped the phrase“all countries except Israel” from passport to maintain internationalstandards of the document and there was no change in its decades-longpolicy of travel ban to the Jewish state, reported The Wire.

Bangladeshi passports earlier had a clause written on them that said “ThisPassport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel”, but thegovernment decided to remove “except Israel” from the document making itvalid for the entire world.

Israel welcomed Bangladesh’s decision and called upon Dhaka to establishdiplomatic ties with Tel Aviv for the benefit of the people of the twocountries.

“Great news! #Bangladesh has removed the travel ban to Israel. This is awelcome step & I call on the Bangladeshi government to move forward andestablish diplomatic ties with #Israel so both our peoples could benefit &prosper,” Deputy Director General at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign AffairsGilad Cohen tweeted.

However, hours later Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen toldthe media in Dhaka that “the changes have been made to maintain globalstandards.”

He said that it “does not mean that there has been a change in Bangladesh’sposition” regarding Israel.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that said theholders of Bangladeshi passports are still banned from travelling to Israel.

The country’s position on Israel remained unchanged, the ministry said,reiterating Bangladesh’s support for a two-state solution to the conflictbetween Israel and Palestine.

“The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently been drawnto a tweet issued from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel thatwelcomes the removal of the ban on travel to Israel on E-passports issuedby Bangladesh,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.