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Kuwait Denies Alleged Conciliation Moves With Iraq
A Kuwaiti official denied on Wednesday press reports that a Gulf Arab envoy is going to make mediation efforts between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on one side and their Arab rival Iraq on the other.
The allegation said that an envoy from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was making conciliatory efforts between the three Gulf states did not come out of the blue as one of Iraqi president's sons has recently indicated on opening a new page of relations with Kuwait, said Suleiman Majid Al-Shaheen, minister of state for foreign affairs, after a meeting of the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East) Wednesday quoted an Arab diplomat in Baghdad as saying that a high-ranking UAE envoy is going to visit Iraq in the coming days to mediate between Iraq and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The diplomat said the envoy would be assigned with clearing atmosphere between Iraq and its Gulf Arab neighbors, namely Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
But the Kuwait official said that "what concerns us in this stage is Iraq's compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions relevant to its invasion of Kuwait in 1990."
The shortest way for Baghdad to return to its natural relations with the Gulf countries is to implement international resolutions, the official Kuwait News Agency quoted Al-Shaheen as saying.
Earlier reports available here said that Saudi official sources had also denied any arrangements of mediations between Riyadh and Baghdad.
Ties between Iraq and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia strained following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which triggered the U.S.-led Gulf War against Iraq in 1991.
Iraq has repeatedly accused Kuwait and Saudi Arabia of being " full culprits" by collaborating with the U.S. and Britain to attack Iraq.�� Saudi Arabia and Kuwait allow the U.S. and Britain to use their bases to monitor the southern no-fly zone in Iraq imposed by the Western allies after the Gulf War.��
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