BEIRUT, 29 March — Iraq pledged in writing never to invade neighboring Kuwait again, in the final resolution of the Arab summit in Beirut, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said yesterday.
The document stipulates that “Iraq respects the independence and the sovereignty of Kuwait as well as its security, which will guarantee avoiding anything that can lead to a repetition of what happened in 1990,” he said. This was the first time that Iraq agreed to voice such a pledge.
Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990, only to be driven out by a US-led coalition at the beginning of the following year. “We have expressed clearly, at their (Kuwait’s) request, our respect of their independence and sovereignty,” Sabri said.
The final resolution also expresses the “respect and the cooperation of the two parties on the lingering issues, particularly concerning the missing,” both Kuwaitis and Iraqis, said Sabri.
“Iraq pledges to cooperate on the issue of the Kuwaiti missing and Kuwait pledges to cooperate on the issue of Iraqi missing,” he said.
The two Kuwaiti requests for an Iraqi pledge not to invade Kuwait again and to reach a settlement on the issue of the Kuwaiti missing persons had not been answered at the last Arab summit, held in Amman in March 2001. A member of the Kuwaiti team said his country had “effectively noted a change in the tone and the attitude of the Iraqi delegation which satisfies us.” Sabri said the compromise agreement in the draft of final resolutions adopted at the closing of the Arab summit was “balanced.”
“It answers the demands of the two parties and expresses the will of the two countries to move forward” and turn the page on the past, he said.
Sabri hailed mediation efforts by Oman and Qatar that helped the two countries reach the compromise document. “These two countries played an essential role in reconciling the points of view” of Iraq and Kuwait, he said.
