More warships en route to Kuwait

Additional reporting by Reda Hammad, IOL correspondent

ABU DHABI, February 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Vanguards of a United Arab Emirates’ infantry brigade arrived Tuesday, February 18, in Kuwait to join other troops in defending the country in the event of a looming U.S.-led war on Iraq.

Kuwaiti Chief-of-Staff Ahmad Al-Amir welcomed the force, which came to Kuwait boarding a U.A.E military plane, the Kuwaiti news agency (KUNA) reported.

The U.A.E troops to be deployed in Kuwait are composed of 4,000 soldiers, an armored brigade comprising 50 French-made Leclerc tanks, 100 Russian Bmb machineguns and an artillery brigade, U.A.E military sources told IslamOnline Wednesday, February 19.

The U.A.E, the sources said, will also send three gunships to Kuwait, including the frigate Makaseb, the warship missile-equipped boat Mer Habib and supply gunship Abu Moussa.

The U.A.E will provide Kuwait with all needed weaponry to defend itself within the framework of the defense pact signed by both countries or join Al-Jazeera Shield Force, sent to Kuwait according to the decision taken by the defense ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in their emergency meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah on February 8, the sources added.

Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jabir al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah said Tuesday troops from the GCC countries, which comprises Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, would be deployed within few days.

He also noted that the troops would be backed by Bahraini warships and U.S. Apache helicopters from the U.A.E.

A U.A.E military delegation also visited Kuwait Saturday, February 15, and held a round of talks with Kuwaiti defense officials on the deployment of the U.A.E troops in Kuwait.

Both sides agreed that the troops would be under the Kuwaiti command.

For his part, Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense spokesman Colonel Youssef al-Molla told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday that troops from the U.A.E navy would arrive in Kuwait on Friday, February 21.

Bahrain, in addition, is expected to send the frigate Sabha and a number of soldiers to join Al-Jazeera Shield Force.

On February 13, the Kuwaiti defense minister said that Bahraini and U.A.E troops would join al-Jazeera Shield Force in defending Kuwait.

The GCC countries signed up to a joint defense pact and formed 5,000-strong Al-Jazeera Shield Force in 1968 to be stationed at Jeddah.

However, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Kahled ben Sultan ben Abd al-Aziz said the Force “will not take part in any military action against Iraq.”

The GCC has been mulling the idea of increasing the number of the Force to 22000 soldiers. But the Force did not play a role in the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990.

Kuwait Protests Lebanon’s Handling of FMs’ Meeting on Iraq 

The French Leclerc will join other weaponry in Kuwait

Kuwait, meanwhile, submitted an official note of protest to the Arab League Secretariat General at the way Lebanon had run the emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers on Sunday, February 16, said an official source in the pan-Arab organization on Tuesday.

“Kuwait regretted the undisciplined manner of running the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers by the presidency (Lebanon), which did not abide by the rules and procedures stipulated in the Arab League by-law,” said the note.

“The presidency did not respond to the request of Saudi Arabia to take vote on the controversial proposal, which called for not issuing any communiqué by the ministerial council and submitting a recommendation on the matter to the extraordinary Arab summit,” it added.

The note further said the Saudi request was backed by Egypt and Kuwait, but ignored by the presidency in an “another violation of the league regulations”.

The presidency issued a statement on Iraq that neither faced up to the divergent viewpoints held by member states nor did it reflect such views, charged Kuwait.

Emerging from a meeting with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Kuwait’s delegate Ahmad Kulabe claimed Moussa told him that this meeting was “one of the worst meetings of the league.”