Hugging between Arafat, Kuwait's Sabah al-Ahmad

In a sign of a great change in Kuwait's position after ten years of cool relations with the Palestinian leadership, the first deputy for the Kuwaiti Premier and the foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat hugged each other, on the sideline of Yemen's celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the unity of the two parts of north and south Yemen in 1990.

The Kuwaiti two dailies al-Rai al-Am and al-Seyasah said on Tuesday in their reports from Sanaa that this hugging actually took place and the " exchanged kisses between Sheikh al-Ahmad and Arafat broke a Kuwaiti- Palestinian coolness lasted for ten years."

Al-Seyasah said that Arafat hugged Sheikh al-Sabah twice. Once when he rushed to Sheikh Sabah during the military parade and the second during the luncheon held by the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Kuwait's crown prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah refused to shake hand with Arafat, who worked in Kuwait by the beginning of the 1960 s, during the funeral of the late Moroccan King al-Hassan II in July 1999 after Arafat tried to greet him. This step was greatly welcomed by the Kuwaitis.