[A-List] Kuwait: the blowback continues

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Kuwait names terrorist killers of US marine
Straw rebuffed as Egypt calls for new UN resolution

VICKY COLLINS
The Herald, 9 October 2002

KUWAIT said last night that the two gunmen who killed an American marine and
wounded another during a military exercise in the country were Kuwaitis
engaged in a "terrorist incident".

The interior ministry named the attackers, who were shot dead in the
firefight, as Anas Ahmad Ibrahim al-Kandari, 21, and Jassem Mubarak
al-Hajri, 26. The statement refrained from mentioning whether the men were
Islamist elements linked to Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Failaka Island, about 10 miles east of Kuwait City, where the attack
occurred, was abandoned when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and Iraqi forces
heavily mined it during their occupation.

Kuwait opposes any unilateral action against Iraq and fears retaliation with
non-conventional weapons if the United States attacks Baghdad.

Muslim fundamentalists are politically strong in Kuwait. They want Saddam
removed from power, but many of them believe George W Bush's real motives
for waging war would be to revive the foundering US economy and weaken Arabs
in support of Israel.

The terrorist incident came as Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, was
rebuffed by Egypt yesterday in his efforts to secure Middle East backing for
a new United Nations resolution on Iraq. Egyptian insistence that there was
"no necessity" for a new resolution came despite a statement from the US
president that a war against Iraq was not inevitable, which was widely
welcomed by international leaders.

After talks in Cairo, Ahmed Maher, the Egyptian foreign minister, accused Mr
Bush of trying to "rewrite the rules in the middle of the game" and said
nothing should be allowed to get in the way of the return of UN weapons
inspectors to Iraq.

Egypt was the first stop on Mr Straw's four-day diplomatic mission to the
Middle East to secure the backing of Iraq's neighbours for action to
eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Straw played down his comments and insisted the meetings with Hosni
Mubarak, the Egyptian president, and his ministers confirmed that they
shared Britain's goal "if at all possible, to have this resolved by peaceful
means".

Mr Maher made clear Egypt's opposition to the UK-American resolution, which
would set out requirements for Saddam to give up any chemical, biological,
or nuclear

arsenals and authorise military action if he failed to comply.

He suggested it was better to operate under existing resolutions, dating
back to the end of the Gulf war in 1991. However, Mr Straw said his meetings
in Egypt had confirmed Saddam Hussein's unpopularity in the region, saying:
"If you have a straw poll of the Arab League not a single person would vote
for Saddam Hussein."

Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, has said his team will not return to
Baghdad until the wrangling in the UN has been settled.