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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq on Friday said it was ready to welcome a Jordanian parliamentary delegation seeking the freedom of hundreds of Kuwaiti prisoners of war (POWs) allegedly held in Iraq. "We ask the [Jordanian] deputy, Ghazi al-Fayez, to come to Baghdad; but on condition that the discussions with the Jordanian parliamentary delegation be made public and broadcast on [state] television," said Ath-Thawra newspaper, which belongs to the ruling Baath party. "Iraq has nothing to hide and has done nothing shameful," the paper said. In August, Fayez led a parliamentary delegation to Kuwait to look into the plight of Kuwaiti POWs held by Iraq and said at the time that the delegation also planned a visit to Baghdad. "We are here to discuss an initiative aimed at releasing Kuwaiti POWs. We will visit Baghdad later," said Fayez on August 13th in Kuwait City. "We firmly believe that Kuwaiti POWs still exist in Iraq. Kuwaitis have supplied firm documentation of their existence," said Fayez, who is also head of the Kuwaiti-Jordanian Friendship Committee. Kuwait maintains that more than 600 of its and other countries' nationals disappeared during the Iraqi occupation from August 1990 to February 1991, and claims the missing are still being held in Iraq. Iraq has admitted taking prisoners, but said it lost track of them during the Shiite Muslim uprising in southern Iraq after the country's retreat from Kuwait. Iraq meanwhile says that 1,555 Iraqis have disappeared, or are being held in Kuwait. The Jordanian MPs visited Kuwait at the invitation of Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Salem al-Sabah, Fayez said at the time, adding that the visit was made "from a purely humanitarian perspective". |
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