KUWAIT CITY, 12 January 2008 — US President George W. Bush met Kuwait’s emir yesterday after arriving in the country to start a Gulf tour aimed at rallying the support of Arab allies against what he calls the Iranian threat.
Bush flew into Kuwait from Israel after his first presidential trip to the Holy Land, where he said he believed a Middle East peace treaty would be signed within a year. He also called on Arab nations to reach out to the Jewish state.
His tour of the region comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran over a naval confrontation in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. But several commentators in the region have voiced strong misgivings about his intentions, amid fears Washington could resort to military action to halt Iran’s disputed nuclear drive.
Although Kuwait is welcoming Bush as a friend, officials have said the country will not allow the US to use its territory as a launchpad for any strike against Iran.
“Mr. President, the region needs smart initiatives, not smart bombs,” the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai said in a front-page editorial yesterday.
Kuwait was a springboard for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, whose forces had invaded Kuwait in 1990 before the country was liberated by a US-led coalition in early 1991.
Kuwait’s state KUNA news agency said Bush’s talks with Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah focused on “bilateral issues and the latest political developments in the Middle East.” The Kuwaiti ruler, who led a red-carpet welcome for Bush when he flew into the country, hosted a banquet for the US president.
Meanwhile, a group representing relatives of Kuwaiti detainees at the US military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, called in a statement for the release of the four remaining Kuwaiti prisoners.
