Kuwait - Iraq trade accusations about Gulf pollution and prisoners
Iraq-Kuwait, Politics, 7/25/1998

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf said that his country denies Kuwaiti accusations that it attempted to pollute Gulf waters with five petroleum tankers after the Gulf War, stating that the alliance forces opposing Iraq were responsible for Gulf pollution during the war.

He added, "The Kuwaiti allegation is false, because those who insisted upon breaking out the war and prevented any peaceful solution to the crisis are those who bear the responsibility for polluting the waters of the Arab Gulf."

He said, "The alliance forces are the ones who shelled the petroleum establishments in Kuwait and targeted the petroleum pipelines and shelled the Iraqi petroleum tankers, therefore the responsibility for the environmental destruction happening to Iraq and Kuwait lies on the alliance forces' shoulders."

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah accused Iraq last Tuesday of polluting Gulf waters after its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.

Meanwhile, Kuwait has strongly denied that it has detained more than 1000 Iraqi captives inside its prisons since the Gulf War.

In this context, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jabir al-Sabah, Kuwait's first deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said that Kuwait denies these claims, confirming that the pretexts of the Iraqi government continue to aim at covering up the case of Kuwait captives and other countries' subjects in Iraqi prisons since the Gulf War.

Moreover, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed said that Kuwait is totally open for all who want to confirm that there are no Iraqi detainees inside Kuwait prisons, unless they are accused of a crime.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait says Iraqis' hunger is result of Iraqi system   (7/22/1998)
  Kuwait denies relations to US plan to topple Saddam Hussein   (7/20/1998)
  Kuwait and Iraq exchanged accusations at Arab parliamentary conference   (6/27/1998)

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