Iraqi, Kuwaiti envoys trade insults, leave
Regional-Lebanon, Politics, 2/17/1998

Tension between Iraq and Kuwait showed itself clearly in statements by their envoys in Beirut Monday as each met separately with Lebanese officials and traded insults before leaving.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who arrived Monday, warned Kuwait against offering its territory to the United States for an attack against Baghdad. "We hope they will not commit this deadly mistake," he told reporters after a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Fares Boueiz.

"This is neither a threat nor an appeal," he said, adding: "Whoever opens his territory for the Americans to spill the blood of innocent Iraqi women and children will bear the consequences of their crime."

Kuwait's planning minister, Ali al-Zumaih, who had arrived in Beirut late Sunday for a 24-hour visit, reiterated his country's confidence in a diplomatic solution.

"We do not despair and hope until the last minute that all means for a diplomatic solution are used up," he said.

Asked about the Iraqi warning to Kuwait, al-Zumaih said threats were "typical of the Iraqi regime, and we will not stoop to this level."

He urged the Iraqi president to focus on United Nations resolutions to spare the Iraqi people from a disastrous war and blamed Saddam for the tension in the region. Al-Zoumaih had earlier delivered a letter from the Kuwaiti emir, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, to President Elias Hrawi on the situation in the Gulf.

Al-Sahhaf, who also delivered a message from Saddam Hussein to Hrawi, appeared hopeful that a visit by U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan to Baghdad would help avert a military strike against his country.

As for a U.N. team working in Baghdad on charting eight presidential palaces which the U.S. suspects are hiding weapons of mass destruction, al-Sahhaf said: "We are confident that they (inspectors) will discover that the American accusations are baseless."

Al-Sahhaf later left on a private plane to Paris, where he is scheduled to hold talks with French President Jacques Chirac.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait prepares hospitals in case of war   (2/14/1998)
  Iraq to open all sites for inspection, time is not restricted   (2/12/1998)
  Kuwait: We want diplomatic solution and coordination   (2/12/1998)

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