Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi arrived in Kuwait yesterday on a historic visit just two days before the 14th anniversary of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's invasion of this small oil-rich state.
Iraqi and Kuwaiti flags flew side by side and both national anthems played as Allawi was met at the airport by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.
Allawi's visit was the first of an Iraqi prime minister since the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis. Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Kuwait earlier this week, and other Iraqi officials have been here since the fall of Saddam and the resumption of ties between the neighbors.
Allawi and Kuwaiti officials declined to speak to the press at the airport, but the Iraqi prime minister said that he considered his visit "historic."
After invading on Aug. 2, 1990, Saddam's troops killed more than 400 people, detained hundreds of others, looted the national archives and left some 700 of the country's oil wells in flames or spewing crude before they were forced out by a US-led international coalition in February 1991.
In Lebanon last Monday, Allawi said the anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was "bitter." Baghdad "will seek good neighborly and brotherly relations and a policy of noninterference," he said, adding he didn't see "any problem between Iraq and Kuwait in the future."
The US-backed Iraqi prime minister is on a tour of Arab nations aimed at mustering support and cooperation for efforts to bring security to his violence-ravaged country, as well as its economy and postwar reconstruction.
Security is expected to be high on the agenda of his talks in Kuwait, especially after the government recently announced it was investigating four Kuwaitis, some of them teenagers, who crossed or tried to cross into Iraq from Syria for jihad, or holy war, against US forces in Iraq.
Kuwait is a strong ally of Washington and was the launch pad for the invasion of Iraq. However, many of its politically strong Muslim fundamentalists disapprove of the US military presence in their country.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2