Devastation overshadows joy of liberation
Kuwait reviews its foreign policy
This is the 15th in a series of articles on His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, the pioneer of the political development of modern Kuwait and 15th ruler of Kuwait.
— Editor
Kuwait was free.
Though he rarely wept except at the loss of his dear friend, in those moments of intense relief he could hardly hold back the tears.
Later when he saw on TV his people inside Kuwait flooding the streets in jubilation, gathering at the great Flag Square in a contagious atmosphere of kindled emotions, he wished he was there among them to celebrate that moment of rebirth, and dance Al Artha (war dance) with them, as he did on the day of Kuwait independence forty years before, on the 19th of June 1961.
The Sheikh felt yet more emotional when he saw the emblem of his homeland rising high towards the sky, free at last; but when the world news began focusing on the devastation that befell his country, rejoicing gave way to deep sadness.
The Sheikh was yet more appalled when few days later the group of experts sent in the wake of the liberation army to assess the damages, presented their report with an estimate of the cost and timing involved to restore the most vital commodities and extinguishing the fire at the oilfield.
Though the report was shocking, the colossal devastation he saw when he returned home, defied all his expectations.
The worse was the sight of hundreds of oil wells on fire, whose fiery tongs rising towards the sky amidst clouds of toxic fumes gave him an impression of hell.
Extinguishing the fires was the most urgent task to be tackled; immediate action was needed to stop the wasting of such a vital resource and the colossal pollution the burning oil was creating affecting health and the environment.Experience
The whole experience of the invasion, the reaction of the Arab world to the crisis, and the struggle to set his country free, left Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad pondering on a new strategic approach in his foreign policy to counteract any new threat to his country’s safety and autonomy, for he knew that as long as Saddam Hussein and his regime remained in power, Kuwait was still under threat.
Though as a precondition of an armistice Saddam signed the Security Council’s No 686 Rresolution passed on the 2nd of March (1991), Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad knew he could not be trusted, because signing an agreement at one moment and recant it at the next moment was his policy.
Indeed, as Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad
Lidia Qattan
in-vain, for many of those countries that stood by the Iraqi dictator during the invasion, continued supporting him in his defiance of the international resolutions he was obliged to honor after the Gulf War.
Indeed Saddam Hussein even tried to split the UAE and the Arab League, but Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad succeeded in maintaining their integrity and solidarity intact.
The economic sanction on Iraq directly caused by the persistent defiance of the Iraqi regime in the face of every decree, was not only causing suffering to its people, it was also affecting the entire region and the rest of the Arab world.
The only winning party in this affair was Israel, which Saddam thundered he would destroy, but it was an empty threat.
When Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad advised the Iraqi regime to comply to the international resolutions to alleviate the suffering of its people, it began accusing Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil, and being the real cause of its people’s suffering!
At the same time it continued to antagonize Kuwait with amassing its people on the border, claiming they were Kuwaiti “Bedun” prevented from returning to their homeland.
Iraq also sent-in spies and the so called “Union of Kuwait rights” to instigate disturbances in the country.
The new far-sighted policy of Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad in protecting his country from further Iraqi threats was fully justified when Iraq mobilized its forces on the Kuwait border in the fall of 1994. This prompted the Sheikh to call for an urgent meeting of the Council of Ministries, in which he exposed the constant Iraqi threat on his country. The Sheikh also took the opportunity in spurring the UN’s Security Council to implement the resolutions relevant to the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion, which the Iraqi regime signed but kept ignoring, even defying them.
The most urgent of those resolutions concerned the release of the Kuwaiti POWs; other resolutions concerned the return of stolen property from Kuwait and the payment of several hundred billions US$ to compensate the losses Kuwait suffered during the Iraqi invasion and the aftermath.
The Security Council’s No. 949 resolution, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the Iraqi troops from the border, and the prompt action of the International Coalition Army moving North of the Gulf, forced Iraq to withdraw its people from the border.
Incidentally, according to the Defense and Security agreement signed by the USA with Kuwait, the American Administration no longer needs the consent from the Congress or from the UN Security Council to take action.
For a while the USA military threat made the Iraqi regime to change its foreign policy.
To be continued