For the first time in more than a decade, President Saddam Hussein grudgingly apologized on Saturday to the people of Kuwait for invading their country in 1990, blaming the Americans and the Kuwaiti government for provoking the invasion.
"We apologize to God for any action that may anger the Almighty, if such an action took place in the past, unbeknownst to us but considered to be our responsibility, and to you [Kuwaitis] we apologize on this basis as well," Saddam said in a speech read on national television by his information minister.
"O, you brothers, what we wish for is what we are working to achieve for your brothers in Iraq: to live free, without foreign control of your destiny, will, decisions, wealth, present and future," he added.
Saddam's declaration was delivered as Iraqi officials were handing over to the UN a massive, 12,000 page declaration of their chemical, biological and nuclear industries, as demanded by the Security Council.
The two moves appeared to be a dramatic bid to set aside the nightmare which began with the 1990 invasion, which led to defeat in the Gulf War and a dozen years of crippling sanctions.
In Kuwait, Information Minister Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah rejected Saddam's apology as unworthy of a response and accused the Iraqi leader of inciting terror attacks.
"Regrettably, the speech contained words to which we would rather not stoop and respond," Al Sabah told the Kuwaiti News Agency. "He must apologize to the Iraqi people first for dragging them into wars that wasted their resources and apologize to the State of Kuwait by telling the truth and returning the prisoners."
Kuwait has been pressing Iraq to account for 600 people, mostly Kuwaitis, who disappeared during Iraq's seven-month occupation. Mohammed al-Jassem, editor of the Kuwait daily Al-Watan, said the speech "cannot be considered an apology by any means."
Saddam's comments carefully avoided use of the word "invasion" in describing what he did to Kuwait and sought to cast blame on the Kuwaiti leadership and the US, which again is threatening war if Iraq does not abandon its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
He said Iraq's actions in 1990 were "prompted by so many actions," including joint US-Kuwaiti military maneuvers and Kuwait's lowering of crude oil prices.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS