KUWAIT CITY, 21 April 2008 — Kuwait is looking to open an embassy in Iraq for the first time since Saddam Hussein invaded his tiny neighbor in 1990, the country’s foreign minister said yesterday.
Kuwait closed its embassy in Baghdad after Iraq’s invasion and the ensuing 1991 Gulf war, which saw US-led forces intervene to throw out Saddam’s army and end Iraq’s seven-month occupation of Kuwait.
Iraq has already reopened its embassy in Kuwait since Saddam’s ouster in 2003.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah told reporters yesterday that Kuwait is looking to buy a building in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone to house a new embassy.
Responding to a question about remarks made earlier by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Al-Sabah said he does not “need a foreigner to tell me the importance of opening an embassy in Baghdad.”
Rice had said Iraq’s neighbors have no excuse for withholding diplomatic and economic support for the Iraqi government.
She arrived in Baghdad yesterday, and is scheduled to travel to Kuwait to attend a key meeting about Iraqi security tomorrow.
A new Kuwaiti ambassador to Iraq would be named after Baghdad names its ambassador to Kuwait, Al-Sabah said. The Iraqi Embassy in Kuwait is currently led by a charge d’affaires.
Washington has tried for years to rally Arab support for post-Saddam Iraq, both for the boost that regional acceptance would give the fledgling democracy and as a bulwark against spreading Iranian influence in Iraq and elsewhere.
Arab diplomats say they want long-term stability in Iraq.
Tomorrow’s meeting in Kuwait involving Iraq’s neighbors and world powers will discuss ways to help Iraq secure its borders and improve internal security and stability.
Al-Sabah said foreign ministers from Iraq and its neighbors will meet today evening, ahead of the extended meeting which will be also attended by representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the Group of Eight industrialized nations and all Arab countries in the Gulf.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani yesterday announced that the main Sunni political bloc would be rejoining the Shiite-led ruling coalition nine months after it had quit the government.
Talabani said the Sunni Accordance Front has already submitted a list of possible Cabinet ministers to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. He added that the move represents an important step in achieving “national reconciliation and unity.”
The announcement is seen as a major boost to Al-Maliki, who has struggled to reconcile Iraq’s feuding Shiite and Sunni politicians within his own government.
Sunni lawmakers say the Front agreed to return in part because of the security offensive that Al-Maliki launched last month against Shiite militiamen.
