Kuwait Unappreciated for Helping Liberate Iraq

SOME 32 nations participated in Kuwait’s liberation from Iraqi occupation. HH [His Highness] the late Amir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, his government and the people of Kuwait thanked every one of these countries for their support, and we continue to do so. After the liberation, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed went on a worldwide tour from the United States up to New Zealand, passing through the United Kingdom, Morocco, Egypt, Gulf Countries and Indonesia, to thank them for their support, which Kuwait will never forget.

As a member of the 1992 Kuwaiti government, I visited many countries, from France to South Africa, Syria, Austria, Iran, Hungary and many others. During such visits I always began my speeches by thanking these nations for participating in the liberation of Kuwait, in the name of the Amir, the government and the people of Kuwait. For his part, the-then Parliament Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun sent delegations to many nations to thank their people.

I always think of this when I see Iraqis forget Kuwait’s role in liberating their country from Saddam Hussein and his monsters. While all Western countries, led by the United States and Britain, participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, no country Arab world but Kuwait took the courageous decision to participate in the war. However, to this day, we have received no word of thanks from anyone in Iraq for what we did for them.

Prime Minister of the Interim Iraqi Government, Eyad Allawi, mentioned all countries for their efforts – including Syria – and purposely failed to mention Kuwait. When he was an MP, the new Prime Minister, Nori Al-Maliki, attacked Kuwait in Iraq’s Parliament over the border pipeline issue. During his acceptance speech for the post of Prime Minister, Al-Maliki never thanked Kuwait once. Can this be a coincidence?

Hassan Al-Allawi, a former member of the Baath party and author of the book “Mud Fences,” was always well received when he visited Kuwait. When asked during a recent interview about the current situation in Iraq and its relations with Kuwait on the Al-Mustaqillah TV channel in London, Al-Allawi said that he was collecting the signatures of Iraqi MPs and well-known Iraqis to abrogate all agreements signed by Iraq with Kuwait. We hope this will never happen. Do the people of Iraq want Kuwaitis to think badly of them? Or are they trying to blackmail the Kuwaiti government by demanding financial assistance?