Kuwait: we will not be the base to strike Iraq

Kuwait on Tuesday announced it will not be the base for the American forces to striking Iraq and stressed that what was stated of deploying 200,000 American troopers in Kuwait for this purpose is "just a rumor that aims at increasing sympathy with Iraq and defaming Kuwait."

To this effect the Kuwaiti deputy premier and defense minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad in a statement to the Saudi daily al-Watan issued on Tuesday considered that the "Iraqi people are eligible to make the change in their country but we do not encourage that to be taken place through us or to take part in acts of this sort in any other country."

Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak said " we do hate this regime ( the Iraqi regime) and believe it is the reason behind the blight in our region as a whole.

On what was stated by commentaries in western media that Kuwait will be the focal place for American and western forces to strike Iraq, the Kuwaiti minister said that the " effective weapon in the war against Iraq is the air force. But as for what has been rumored on deploying 200,000 American soldiers of Kuwait in preparations for the war against Iraq, they are mere rumors aiming just to raise sympathy for the Iraqi regime."