Kuwait announces elimination of 'the fog' in the relations with Lebanon

Kuwait's first deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah yesterday announced that the "fog" which has clouded relations between Kuwait and Lebanon was eliminated.

In a press conference quoted by the Kuwaiti official news agency, the Kuwaiti minister said that the "fog which hit the relations of the Kuwaiti and Lebanese people" was removed, hoping that things will return back as before.

The statement of the Kuwaiti minister during the graduation of officers of the military academy coincided with the existence of the Lebanese prime minister since Monday in Kuwait to remove differences between the two states. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad expressed his happiness over the presence of the Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri in Kuwait and the welcome he had received from all.

Replying to a question, the Kuwaiti minister denied the "existence of problems" between the two states. He said there are no problem to be discussed, "just some blames." This is, however, the first visit held by Hariri to Kuwait after the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Kuwait's regret to Lebanon over its stand concerning the American- British war against Iraq which resulted in the collapse of the former Iraqi regime.

Kuwaiti parliamentarians opposed Hariri's visit and considered it as an "insult to Kuwait."