NEW DELHI, 25 March 2003 — Kuwait estimates the US-led war in adjoining Iraq will likely end within a month and lead to the reopening of embassies in each other’s countries, the emirate’s chief envoy in New Delhi said yesterday.
“We hope to see within one month diplomatic missions of Kuwait and Iraq being reopened in the two countries after a gap of 12 years,” Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdullah Al-Murad told reporters here.
Al-Murad said Kuwait hoped the war against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would lead to friendly ties between the two Gulf nations, strained since the 1991 Gulf War.
“The US agenda is to liberate Iraq, paving the way for the establishment of a new government in Baghdad which will deal peacefully with its neighbors,” he said.
India, which vehemently opposes the US military action in Iraq, hopes for an end to the hostilities before its Gulf-supplied oil stocks dry up within 30 days.
India’s requirement of oil in the current financial year is estimated at 108 million tons, of which only 33 million tons will be met by local production.
Al-Murad also tried to allay fears on the safety of some 350,000 Indians working in the oil-rich emirate.
“The Indian community in Kuwait is safe and there is no exodus,” he said in reply to questions on the return of hundreds of Indians from Kuwait from the start of war on Thursday.
