BAGHDAD: Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah held talks in Baghdad yesterday at the highest level since the 1990 invasion and received assurances he was dealing with a new Iraq.
Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki told Sheikh Mohammed that post-Saddam Hussein Iraq sought “security, stability, construction, not weaponry and dictatorship,” in a total change of direction from the former regime.
“There is no way to return to the policy of war and adventures,” said the prime minister, in a statement issued by his office. “The problems that we face are a leftover from the former regime. Some Arabs look at Iraq as if it was still in Saddam’s time, and we say to them that Iraq today is based on a constitution and democracy,” Al-Maliki added, pointing to last month’s successful provincial election.
“Iraq has changed. The bad image is over, no more terrorism, no more Al-Qaeda. Our country is an important partner in the region,” the prime minister said.
Kuwait marked its 1991 liberation from Iraqi occupation at a party in Baghdad for the first time on Wednesday night, on the eve of the visit by Sheikh Mohammed who is also deputy prime minister.
His visit brought the most senior leader from Kuwait since Saddam’s tanks rolled into the emirate on Aug. 2, 1990.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP this month the two sides have a list of thorny issues to discuss, such as joint oilfields, demarcation of maritime borders and billions of dollars in war reparation claims.
Kuwait had troubled ties with Iraq for decades, culminating in Saddam’s invasion until his forces were expelled by a US-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War.
“We are still paying five percent of oil sales in compensation to Kuwait,” Zebari said. “But we have come a long, long way with them” and the two countries have set up a joint ministerial commission.
Kuwait posted Ali Al-Momen as ambassador to post-Saddam Iraq last October, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited the emirate for an Arab economic summit in January.
Kuwait said Monday it had received $13.3 billion in compensation from Iraq for its invasion and seven-month occupation. It is still seeking tens of billions more.
