Kuwait, Saudi Arabia cling to compensations

Each of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia yesterday clung to getting " compensations " from Iraq for the past invasion, at a time when France said it is ready to resume diplomatic relations with Iraq.

The French foreign minister Michaeil Barnieeh said in the statement of the French foreign ministry yesterday that France is ready to " resume " its diplomatic relations quickly with Iraq.

In Kuwait, the Kuwaiti prime minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah ruled out yesterday any participation for the Kuwait forces in the multi national forces in Iraq in order to avoid " any friction." Though they welcomed the authority turnover to the Iraqis, both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia yesterday called on Baghdad to pay compensations at billions of dollars for damages resulting from the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

The chairman of the Environmental affairs in Saudi Arabia prince Turkey Bin Nasser Bin Abdul Aziz said that Iraq has the ability and the means capable of compensating for the damages inflicted on the states demanding compensations.

In a speech he delivred in a close door session of the UN compensation committee he explained " that holding not the aggressor the full responsibility will constitute an unprecedented incident." The chairman of the Kuwaiti commission specialized on estimating compensations, Khaled Ahmad al-Mudif, said in a speech before the UN committee that paying the compensations is a process that should not be delayed nor obstructed."