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Iraq Condemns Kuwait's "Provocative" Liberation Celebrations
BAGHDAD, Feb 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A senior Iraqi official on Sunday accused Kuwait of provocation for celebrating the 10th anniversary of its liberation in the Gulf War warning of a possible "explosion" in the region.
"Kuwait's rulers are celebrating U.S. occupation ... aggravating their losses, entrenching themselves in isolation and deepening the hatred against them," charged Hamid Said, Iraq's deputy information minister.
Said was quoted in the Qadissiya, an Iraqi military daily condemning the festivals held in Kuwait attended by former U.S. president George Bush, the elder, the key participant in the Gulf war who launched a U.S.-led coalition expelling Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in the January-February 1991 conflict.
Bush was joined in Kuwait later Sunday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell conducting a whirlwind tour of the Middle East attempting to garner support among Arab states in the region for continued U.N. sanctions on Iraq, participate in the Kuwaiti anniversary celebrations, and attempting to ease tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.
"This is all the more provocative because it coincides with events confirming the criminal role of the United States ... such as its total support for the Zionist repression of the Palestinian Intifada [uprising]," said Said.
"Such an escalation threatens an explosion" in the region, said the official.
On Saturday, Kuwait's leaders announced the renewal of a defense pact with the United States.
The signing of the pact comes on the heels of recent U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq that targeted radar and command centers, but left three civilian dead and 30 others wounded. Most of the international community condemned the U.S. and British air strikes.
In the meantime, an official Iraqi newspaper urged Arabs to struggle against the U.S. "occupation" of Kuwait.
"The struggle ... against this savage and arrogant ogre that is occupying Kuwait is a national duty, in which we call on all Arabs to play their role," wrote Al-Jumhuriya, another official daily, referring to the United States.
Al-Jumhuriya, commenting on the defense pact, said "the American-Zionist hegemony" over the emirate would "destroy and steal its riches."
This year's Gulf War anniversary celebrations in Kuwait are the first of its kind in the emirate.
Although, Iraqi armed forces were ejected from Kuwait, Iraq still proclaims itself victor of the 1991 Gulf War.
"Iraq's victory in the 'mother of all battles' is fact, the opposition having failed in its objectives," to change the regime in Baghdad, Abdul Razak al-Hashemi, president of the Iraqi government's friendship and peace organization, said.
Since U.S. and British forces carried out their air strikes, Iraqi ministers have flown to China, France, Egypt, India, Russia and Syria seeking support for a campaign to lift U.N. sanctions imposed on the country for its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
"This aggression is an attempt to lead Iraq into a new military confrontation, after the failure of the policy of containment against Iraq over the past 10 years," Muad Said, head of Iraq's parliamentary commission on Arab and international affairs, said after tensions ran high in the region.
He said the latest raids were "a mistake that will bug the new U.S. administration throughout its four-year term."
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