NEW Delhi: A United Nations force would be stationed in Kuwait after its liberation form Iraqi occupation Kuwaiti Amir’s special envoy Abdullah Rehman Al Awadhi said here Friday
Addressing a news conference Dr Al Awadhi said supporting countries like Turkey Pakistan and Iran and neutral countries like India should contribute to such a force.
The Kuwaiti envoy said the multinational force would be withdrawn from Kuwait once all vestiges of Iraqi control and threat had been removed.
Speaking very warmly of Iranian role in the Gulf Dr Awadhi described as sincere and genuine the latest Iranian proposal to end the Gulf conflict.
He said the Kuwait government in exile supported the Iranian proposal and favoured direct talks on it between President George Bush and his Iranian counterpart Hashmi Rafsanjani.
The Amir’s envoy was very appreciative of India’s role in the Gulf. He said after initial confusion over India’s role it is now very clear that India stands by implementation of the Security Council resolutions.
Asked about Kuwait supporting the idea of setting up of Islamic defence pact the envoy assured that it was earlier mooted to guard against attacks on Islamic and Arab countries adding but see what has happened in the gulf.
The Kuwaiti envoy said his government in exile had the full information and details about who was propagating for pro-Saddam tallies in Islamic and third world countries.
The envoy said he regretted his country’s huge material and financial support to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq conflict adding that it was all the more embarrassing as he himself had been the main conduit.
He said Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had used these funds to set up what he called a propaganda machine.
This machine is proving very difficult for us to overcome in the present conflict the envoy admitted.
The envoy said Iraq was not following any international conventions regarding war adding that there was no information regarding more than 15000 Kuwaiti nationals being held under detention in Mosul and Basra by the Iraqi authorities.
Meanwhile the Iranian foreign’ minister Dr Abdu! Velayati held a telephonic talk with Indian external affairs minister V C Shukla and it was decided that the two leaders would meet before the N A M meeting at Belgrade on February
12 Referring to Kashmir Dr Awadhi said force could not solve the Kashmir problem and asked India and Pakistan to sit together to resolve the issue.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 15, 1991
