Pride and prejudice?
The Kuwaiti campaign against Amr Moussa is off -- for now. Dina Ezzat reports on a peculiar tug of war
Kuwait is not the only Arab country openly providing facilities to the US and Great Britain in their war against Iraq. It is, however, the only one accommodating the quarter million US troops who are invading neighbouring Iraq with the aim of occupation. It is also the only Arab country collaborating in the war that is taking strong positions against anyone who shows the slightest opposition to the aggression and occupation.
Several Arab states have been subjected to Kuwaiti ire for being vocal in their opposition to the Anglo- American war and support for the Iraqi resistance. Lebanon, Syria and Libya, among others, have all come under heavy fire from Kuwaiti officials, commentators as well as sympathisers in the Arab media.
One particularly notable target of Kuwait wrath is Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, who has taken a clear stance on the war against Iraq. "Condoning the occupation of an Arab state -- any Arab state -- and accepting the current scenes of misery and destruction that we see day and night on our TV screens goes against Arab pride."
"There is no quarrel between Kuwait and the Arab League," Moussa said earlier this week as yet another episode of the Kuwaiti anti-Moussa campaign wound down.
Moussa's remarks came less than 24 hours after both sides declared that they would resolve their differences behind closed doors. "We have our views, and the secretary-general has his, but from now on we will be exchanging them behind closed doors -- away from satellite channels that like to blow things completely out of proportion," commented Ahmed Al- Koleib, Kuwait's permanent representative to the Arab League.
Al-Koleib's remarks also came after Moussa had made an unprecedented move to respond to the most virulent round of criticism he has faced from Kuwait since visiting Baghdad in January of last year. Moussa went to the Iraqi capital in a diplomatic bid to bring Iraq back into the Arab fold.
Late last week, after enduring four weeks of Kuwaiti allegations that he was partial towards Iraq, Moussa said there were limits to his tolerance of such criticism in spite of the "bitterness I know Kuwaitis must still harbour from their painful memories of the Iraqi invasion of their country in the early 1990s". He added, though, "When it comes to war and peace one cannot be but biased against war in light of the horror, destruction and frustration that we are seeing each day. History will be very hard on us if we take a neutral stance on this aggression against an Arab state".
In response to allegations made in the Kuwaiti press and by the speaker of the Kuwaiti Parliament, Moussa has one reply: "I was also biased in 1990, but in favour of Kuwait when it was invaded and occupied." With respect to the current situation, he said, "After all, my opposition to this war is strongly supported by Arab resolutions declaring it an illegitimate aggression and calling on invaders to withdraw their troops," he added.
But his argument has not been accepted by most Kuwaitis.
In contrast to Moussa and the overwhelming majority of Arab states, Kuwaitis have no quarrel with the legitimacy of this war -- at least not on the official level. On Monday, Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Al-Sabah said that the Anglo-American war was entirely legitimate.
According to one Kuwaiti commentator, "Moussa had to take Kuwait's side in 1990 because the country had been invaded. What is happening in Iraq is a war of liberation. We are helping the Americans liberate the Iraqis from the tyrant called Saddam Hussein, who has victimised them for decades, waging wars to augment his personal glory."
In fact, Kuwaiti newspapers have been reporting that citizens go to mosques each Friday to pray for an American victory. "God Almighty, please be on the US's side," Kuwaiti mosque-goers are said to repeat after the Imams in Kuwait city.
Its quarrel with Moussa aside, Kuwait has recently been suffering from political isolation in the Arab world. "It is very sad, but let's face it, unlike Qatar, which is hosting the central command of the US military, but is willing to express sympathy for Iraqis' misery in this war, Kuwait is taking on a festive mood to celebrate its neighbour's destruction," a Cairo- based Arab diplomat commented.
Another Arab diplomat expressed incredulity that at a time when Iraq's sovereignty was being violated and when hundreds of its people were being killed and injured each day, Kuwaiti diplomats seek resolutions from official Arab meetings declaring support for its own security. "It's absolutely ridiculous. It's actually in bad taste," he said.
Such actions have been the target of considerable criticism in various Arab quarters. A number of newspapers across the Arab world ran opinion pieces highly critical of Kuwait and what one called its "exceptional hospitality to the American invaders".
And, Kuwait's assault on Moussa has accorded Iraq's small neighbour another round of reproach. Dawoud Al-Shoriyan, a leading Saudi commentator for the London-based daily Al-Hayat, admonished Kuwaitis to be more realistic. "Does the speaker of the Kuwaiti parliament want the Arab League secretary-general to take a neutral stance and overlook the illegitimacy and alarming consequences of this war? If he were to do so, he would be neglecting the duties of his office," Al-Shoriyan wrote on Sunday.
Al-Shoriyan criticised Kuwait for playing the American game of "you're either with us or against us", suggesting that such behaviour was not becoming of an Arab state.
Prominent Arab commentator Abdel-Bari Attwan took a stronger stance in editorials carried by another London-based Arabic daily, Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Under the title "Kuwait is becoming ferocious", Attwan took the country to task for acting as though it was a superpower. Attwan went as far as to admonish Kuwaiti officials who took a stance against the secretary-general, writing, "Moussa is not a Kuwaiti civil servant," continuing to the effect that Kuwait needs the Arab League -- not the other way round.
Interestingly enough, Salah Al- Fadli, a Kuwaiti commentator adopted a similar line. In a column printed on Sunday in the leading Kuwaiti daily Al-Ra'ei Al-Aam, Al-Fadli cautioned officials and the public that they should not push their luck. Kuwait has to admit that at the end of the day it is an Arab state and that it should not act as a mouthpiece for the American-led coalition, he argued. Entitled, "Our media is going mad," Al-Fadli's piece wrote that Kuwait is no superpower, and despite its security pacts with the US, it still needs the political umbrella of the Arab League.
