Solitary Kuwait
By publicly supporting and offering unprecedented facilities to the US-led attack against Iraq, Kuwait has landed itself in an unenviableposition. Dina Ezzat reports
Kuwait is certainly not the only Arab Gulf state offering military and other facilities to the Anglo-American aggression against Iraq. But, unlike other Gulf states, Kuwait is making no secret of its support. With two-thirds of Kuwaiti territory now home to almost a quarter of a million Anglo-American troops, it would have been hard to hush Kuwait's direct involvement in the aggression against Iraq. The statements made by the Kuwaiti ambassador in the US in support of the attack were all too clear -- Kuwait is in full and participatory support of the US-led war against Iraq.
The Kuwaitis are now upset that since the start of military hostilities, Iraqi missiles are being launched at coalition troops currently stationed in Kuwait.
On Monday, during the Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting held at the Arab League's Cairo headquarters, the Kuwaiti delegation asked the meeting to "condemn the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait".
Responding to an Arab refusal to accommodate the Kuwaiti request described by diplomats as "most extraordinary", the Kuwaiti delegation stood alone in refusing to support an anti-war resolution that was otherwise unanimously adopted by league member states, including other countries providing coalition forces with facilities, such as Qatar.
Kuwaiti officials and commentators are blaming the Iraqi regime for the current situation. They argue that today's havoc was initiated in 1990 when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent his troops to Kuwait to retaliate for a dispute over oil wells on the borders between the two countries. "Kuwaiti people are very grateful to American and British troops for risking their lives to remove this regime. Yes, people are carrying the American and US flags on our streets. We love the Americans and we love the British and we are more than willing to forgo our membership of the Arab nation," said one Kuwaiti commentator.
Kuwaiti officials are even intolerant of Arab sympathy with the Iraqi people. On the first day of the aggression against Iraq, Kuwait's permanent representative to the Arab League Ahmed Al-Koleib was quick to express his state's disappointment with statements made by Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa expressing concern over the impact of war on Iraq.
During the following four days leading up to the Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting, Kuwaiti diplomats in Cairo were spending a good part of their time at the league headquarters trying, to no avail, to bring Moussa to condemn the alleged Iraqi aggression against Kuwait.
Like many other top Arab diplomats, Moussa expressed his full sympathy with Kuwait's right to enjoy full sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, he also maintained the position that it is Iraq that is enduring a harsh attack.
The sentiment of utter rejection of the US-led aggression on Iraq and Kuwait's shameless involvement in a war that is leaving hundreds of Iraqis killed and wounded every day is being echoed in no uncertain terms both at the public and official levels.
In the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, to mention but one example, angry demonstrators stormed the Kuwaiti Embassy and took down the Kuwaiti flags. Demonstrations surrounding Kuwaiti embassies in several Arab capitals have also taken place throughout the week.
"We have all been witnessing the horrible bombardment of Baghdad. We have been seeing the horror and destruction. No Arab claiming to have a conscience can accept subjecting the Arab people in Iraq to this horror," Moussa said on Saturday as he met with the permanent representatives of the Arab countries to prepare for the Foreign Ministers Meeting. Moussa's statement prompted an ovation from all participants, except Kuwait's ambassador, Al-Koleib.
On Monday, Al-Koleib sat sullenly amidst another ovation when Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Al-Treiki, the current chair of the Arab ministerial council, expressed Arab pride in the Iraqi resistance in the face of the US-led attack.
