Kuwait firmly against better relations with Israel – official
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 16, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah on Friday affirmed that the stance of Kuwait is clearly and firmly opposed to normalization of relations with Israel.
“The State of Kuwait will be the last country to normalize relations with Israel,” he said, noting “anybody would be mistaken if they imagined that the group picture taken at Warsaw conference signal a change in Kuwait’s firm stand on this issue.”
“Kuwait took part in Warsaw peace and security conference under joint invitation from the United States and the Republic of Poland with which Kuwait has close relations and allied itself in some issues.
“Besides, the issues on the agenda of the conference have to do with the future of security and peace in the Middle East of which we are a part,” Al-Jarallah said in response to speculations circulated by social media.
“It would be illogical that these topics, including the Palestine question and the developments of the Middle East peace process, are discussed in our absence. Our participation in the conference stemmed from keenness on defending these issues, not plundering them.
“We made our point clear at all international forums, foremost among which is the UN Security Council through our non-permanent membership,” he explained, adding that Kuwait’s principled stance was highly appreciated by “the Palestinian brothers.”
He reiterated that Kuwait will be the last country to normalize relations with Israel after the realization of a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestine question and the establishment of Palestine State with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the relevant resolutions of the United Nations, the Arab peace initiative.
Turning back to the group picture, he said that normalization of relations between countries has various forms that do not necessarily include taking group pictures at international conferences.
Kuwait participated in the just-ended Warsaw conference alongside with other sisterly countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) whose participating delegations were of higher level than that of Kuwait, he noted.