World Peace News: Top Stories

Kuwaiti foreign minister on landmark visit to Iraq
by Aseel Kami

Reuters Translate This Article
26 February 2009

BAGHDAD, (Reuters) - Kuwait's deputy prime minister met Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Thursday on the first high-level visit by a Kuwaiti official since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the tiny Gulf state.

The arrival of Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah, who is also foreign minister, coincided with strengthening security in Iraq and growing investor interest as the sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam fades.

It also marked a growing acceptance of Baghdad's Shi'ite Muslim-led government by Sunni-dominated Gulf Arab states, who have been suspicious of Iraq's post-Saddam ties to Shi'ite Iran. Many Arab states have started to open embassies.

Sheikh Mohammad met Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari in Baghdad and praised the government for Jan. 31 provincial elections that turned out to be Iraq's most peaceful vote since the U.S. invasion.

'I congratulate the prime minister on the recent election which put Iraq in the ranks of independent and free countries,' he said.

The Kuwaiti official did not mention in his public remarks issues that were likely to be high on the Iraqi agenda, such as the 5 percent of its oil income that Baghdad continues to pay to Kuwait and other nations in reparations for the 1990 invasion.

Baghdad, which desperately need funds to rebuild after years of conflict and international sanctions, also wants its wealthy neighbour to cancel loans it made to the Saddam government during its war with Iran in the 1980s.

'Frankly speaking, the Kuwaitis are still dealing with Iraq as if Saddam was still relevant. This is wrong. Saddam and his regime are gone,' said political analyst Kadhum al-Muqdadi.

'Their issues now are with Iraq, not Saddam. If they keep on dealing with Iraq in the same way, they will lose their chance with the Iraqi people.'

Ties between Kuwait and Iraq have improved since the fall of Saddam, with Iraqi officials regularly visiting their neighbour and Kuwaiti firms, such as Agility, the Gulf's biggest logistics provider, expanding energetically into Iraq.

Iraq and Kuwait have also reached preliminary deals over shared border oil fields.

But many in Kuwait remain bitter about the invasion, and its parliament has shown no inclination to approve a debt write-off.

Kuwait has also said that any changes to the reparations that Iraq has to pay for the invasion must be decided by the U.N. Security Council. Iraq was driven out of Kuwait in 1991 by a U.S.-led coalition in the first Gulf War.

Iraq's sectarian violence since 2003 made diplomatic ties difficult. No Arab country had an ambassador in Baghdad from 2005—when Egypt's envoy was kidnapped and killed—until September 2008.

Kuwait's first ambassador to Iraq since 1990 took office in October and Jordan's King Abdullah became the first Arab leader since the fall of Saddam to visit Baghdad last August.

(Additional reporting by Saif Tawfeeq; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Copyright 2009 Reuters. Reprinted with permission from Reuters. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution or Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters Sphere Logo are registered trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. For additional information about Reuters content and services, please visit Reuters website at www.reuters.com. License # REU-4198-JJM.

Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google)
(Altavista babelfish)

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.