Home
Kuwait’s Ambassador to Baghdad denies knowledge of plan to undermine stability in southern Iraq
8/9/2011 11:49 AM
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Baghdad, Ali al-Mo’amin, has denied having any knowledge about a plan, claimed by certain sources, that a member in Kuwait’s ruling family was leading a plan aimed at undermining stability in southern Iraq, al-Sharq al-Awsat Newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Newspaper quoted the semi-official Iranian Mehr news agency as reporting that “sources in the Iraqi Council of Ministers had said that a meeting was held in Baghdad last Sunday of Iraq’s National Security Council, chaired by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, attended by Deputy Prime Minister, Roz Nouri Shawes, Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, Finance Minister, Rafi’e al-Issawi, along with the National Security Advisor, Faleh al-Fayadh, Intelligence Director, Zuheir al-Gharbawi, the Army’s Chief of Staff, Babakir Zibary and Commanders of the Security Bodies.”
“Prime Minister Maliki had informed the conferees, who attended the said meeting that he had received information that one of Kuwait’s ruling family’s Sheikhs (Chieftains), steering its Intelligence Body, is planning to conscript certain elements to undermine security in Southern Iraq!,” Mehr reported.
It quoted the Iranian Agency as saying that “Maliki had also informed the conferees that he had informed the Emir of Kuwait, during his visit to Kuwait last April, that the said Sheikh’s plan depends on conscripting terrorist groups inside Iraq to undermine the situation in the country, especially in Southern Iraq.”
Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Baghdad, Ali al-Mu’amin, as saying “he did not possess any information in this respect and he can’t issue an opinion of a position about something he did not have any information about,” promising to “follow up the issue with different Kuwaiti parties, especially that such information seems to be out of his authorities, and had involved certain officials, higher than him.”
The Newspaper quoted an Iraqi official source as saying that “Iraq deals with Kuwait through the principle of goodwill and it is actually trying to close the painful page of the past between both countries,” charging that “the said information had been fabricated and that the New Iraq does not deal with such intelligence tactics.”
“Such information could be dealt with inside certain bodies here-and-there, stemming from their sources, whether they were true or not; but they must be followed up,” he stressed.
Kuwait had announced on April 6th last the beginning of the construction of its Mubarak Port, one year after Iraq’s announcement of its intention to build its Grand Faw Port in the Gulf.
Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and the Minister of Development, Ahmed al-Fahad, had stated that the project, contract of which was concluded with the South-Korean Hondai Company “would be a friend for the environment,” stressing that it “includes great motives, aimed at achieving hopes and ambitions of the Kuwaiti people, who had always wished to build a port in such strategic and active position, aimed at making Kuwait a financial and commercial center on both Regional and International Levels.”
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
