Kuwait had no official contacts with the Palestinian government
Kuwait-Palestine, Politics, 11/1/2000

The Kuwaiti foreign ministry stressed on Tuesday that Kuwait had no contacts with the Palestinian government to resume relations between the two sides.

Meantime, the United Arab Emirates UAE has urged Britain to " use its international status to halt the barbarous aggressions of the Israeli forces against the Palestinians."

The Kuwaiti news agency Kuna quoted a source at the foreign ministry saying that " the question of relations between the state of Kuwait and the Palestinian government is one thing and the care to achieve the needed backing for attaining the legitimate rights of the Palestinians is something else." He stressed that no contacts have been so far made between Kuwait and the palestinian government," towards resuming relations. He added that the state of Kuwait sympathizes with the uprising of al-Aqsa and the escalation of al- Intifada in the other Palestinian territories in order to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."

This new position came after the minister of planning and international cooperation at the Palestinian government Nabil Shaath announced he will visit Kuwait during the: coming days "in order to prepare the way for the visit of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat." In a statement to the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am Shaath added " I will fulfil the visit as soon as I receive a telephone call from the Kuwaiti foreign ministry even in hours," noting that he has " certain instructions from Abu Ammar ( Arafat) to seek and restore relations with Kuwait to what they were on before."

Shaath continued that he had tried to contact the Kuwaiti deputy premier and foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Arafat, had praised the decision taken by Kuwait to contribute in US $ 150 million to al-Aqsa Fund and the Uprising Fund, approved to be set up by the recent Cairo Arab summit conference.

Kuwait has resumed its diplomatic relations with most Arab states which were accused of backing Iraq during the Gulf crisis, but it until now has been refusing to make reconciliation with the Palestinians.

Previous Stories:
  Qrei expects normalization with Kuwait   (10/27/2000)
  Kuwaiti daily expects the convening of an Arab summit   (7/5/2000)
  Ruler of Kuwait refuses to shake hand with Arafat   (6/14/2000)

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