Kuwaitis Support Effort To Oust Saddam

Defense News | June 24-30, 2002 | Riad Kahwaji, Dubai

[Stand Watch Listen]

Kuwait will help topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, provided Saudi Arabian support and U.N. resolutions underpin the effort, and successful steps have been taken to end Palestinian-Israeli clashes, according to Kuwaiti officials and experts.

"So long as Saddam Hussein’s regime is in power, Iraq will remain a source of threat to Kuwait," which it invaded in 1990, said Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwaiti defense minister.

"Kuwait will participate in a military campaign to remove the Iraqi regime only if the military action came in compliance with a United Nations’ resolution," Jaber told Defense News on June 18.

Most of Kuwait’s 50-member parliament shared Jaber’s view.

"No doubt that Kuwaiti people know very well the Iraqi regime and they all wish to see this regime toppled today before tomorrow. But Kuwait will only support decisions by the international community to strike any country that revolts against the international will," said Mohamad Al-Busairi, Kuwaiti member of Parliament.

"The view of many Kuwaitis is that Iraq is a destabilizing factor in the region and its regime must be removed," parliamentarian Saleh Ashour said.

But several issues must be resolved before Kuwait will support to the U.S.-led war on terror.

"Kuwait must be part of the global war on terrorism, but this would be difficult with the prevailing perception in the West that the Arab and Islamic world is the source of terrorism," Waleed Al-Nusif, editor in chief of Kuwait’s leading daily newspaper, Al-Qabas, told Defense News on June 19.

"Kuwaitis believe that Israel’s repressive measures against the Palestinians in the occupied territories is terrorism," he said. "It would be very hard for the Kuwaiti government to justify its participation in a military campaign against Iraq under the motto of combating terrorism."

Al-Nusif was referring to the Palestinian-Israeli clashes that have raged in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the past 21 months.

"Kuwait was among the first countries to reject terrorism," Jaber said. But terrorism has many faces, and "Kuwait has reservations on the West’s ambiguous definition of terrorism," he added.

A Western diplomat in Kuwait who asked not to be named said Kuwait provided a clear message to U.S. officials who recently visited the region that "it would be hard to expect any serious support to its plans against Iraq from its regional allies before reviving the Middle East peace process."

Saudi Arabia’s stance on another Iraqi war also is seen as critical.

"Saudi Arabia’s position is very important in determining Kuwait’s final stance on the war on Iraq," Al-Nusif said.

He said Saudi Arabia’s political weight in the Persian Gulf and the Arab world makes it "crucial to the U.S. to secure Riyadh’s backing."

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah led an initiative to reconcile Kuwait with Iraq in March at the Arab League summit in Beirut, where he got the heads of the two countries’ delegation to shake hands, said Hussein Jamal, a Kuwait-based analyst.

But the Saudi initiative, which was criticized by U.S. officials, was not followed up by moves to bridge the gap between the foes.

Abdullah, who has been the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since his brother, King Fahd, suffered a stroke, has been working closely with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to broker a settlement for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

His moves have been perceived by many analysts in the region as an attempt to press the United States to resolve the issue in return for Arab backing of a campaign to uproot the Iraqi regime.