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Axis of Evil
Kuwait isn't buying Iraq's
2002-03-26
  • Iraq and Kuwait clashed at an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Beirut on Monday, and accused each other of blocking any attempt to bridge differences between the two countries. The two sides have submitted opposing documents to this week's Arab summit, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told AFP on Monday. "Iraq had not planned to submit a document to the summit, which it wanted to concentrate on support for the Palestinian cause,” Sabri said. "But when Kuwait put in a document on the situation between Iraq and Kuwait, Iraq reacted by presenting its own document."

    An Arab League official said the Kuwaiti paper had taken a fairly hard line, while the Iraqis had been fairly conciliatory. The official predicted that a compromise formula for the final declaration would be found which would satisfy both sides. But a Kuwaiti minister accused Baghdad of blocking conciliation attempts. "There is no serious change in the Iraqi policy towards Kuwait," Kuwait's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al Salem Al Sabah told reporters after the meeting. “The faces have changed, the messenger has changed, but the message remains the same,” he said in reference to Iraq's Sabri, who was appointed as foreign minister late last year.

    Sheikh Mohammad said the meeting failed to agree on the wording of a statement on the Iraqi-Kuwaiti rift after the Iraqi delegation refused to pledge never to attack Kuwait again. The Kuwaiti minister said the “situation between Iraq and Kuwait” was discussed in depth at the meeting, but he requested that the issue be kept off the agenda of the Arab summit because of Iraq's hard line.
    Guess the Kuwaitis haven't totally taken leave of their senses.
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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