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Kuwait Backs Call To Lift Sanctions On Iraq
KUWAIT CITY, Jan 22 (News Agencies) - Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Monday backed a call in a Kuwaiti newspaper to lift the decade-old U.N. sanctions on the emirate's former occupier Iraq but accused Baghdad of a new "escalation".
"I was the first to call Jassem Bodai [the paper's editor] to congratulate him for his brave editorial," Sheikh Sabah told reporters in parliament.
Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper called Sunday for the lifting of "sanctions on the Iraqi people," saying the U.N. embargo in force since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait had only served to strengthen the leadership in Baghdad.
"We say, motivated by Kuwait's conscience, lift the siege on the Iraqi people, and target sanctions directly at the ruling elite," said the paper, in a rare Kuwaiti call for an end to the embargo.
But Sheikh Sabah charged that the Iraqi leadership itself opposed lifting sanctions. "The issue is that the Iraqi regime does not want [to see] the sanctions lifted," he said.
The foreign minister also regretted a threat from Baghdad that it could withdraw recognition of the emirate's territorial integrity over its support for U.S. and British air strikes.
The warning came a day after Baghdad said six civilians were killed in a raid on southern Iraq, which Western planes patrol from bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well as aircraft carriers in the Gulf.
"We hope that reason should guide whatever is said in the Iraqi press or by officials. But it is regrettable that they have decided to escalate the issue," Sheikh Sabah said.
"This escalation is not against Kuwait only, but also against the U.N. and its resolutions. I don't think this would serve the Iraqi interests," he added.
A U.S.-led coalition evicted Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. Three years later, Iraq officially recognized the state of Kuwait and its U.N.-demarcated borders.
But MP Uday Saddam Hussein, elder son of the Iraqi president, called last week for parliament "to prepare a map of the whole of Iraq, including Kuwait City, as an integral part of Greater Iraq."
Iraqi officials have since played down Uday's call in the face of international protests.
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