 Kuwait said on Saturday it had put behind it its anger at the Palestinian leadership's perceived backing of the 1990 Iraqi invasion, as it prepared to receive PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas on a landmark visit on Sunday. "We consider the issue of the position of the Palestinian Authority (leadership) towards the Iraqi invasion as over. We welcome the visit of PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas," Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters.
| Damned sight more forgiving than I'd be. |
"Why talk about an apology?" Sheikh Sabah said in response to a question on whether Kuwait will still demand an apology.
| 'cause they helped Saddam rape your country? |
"We welcome him and his brothers in the delegation accompanying him," he said.
| "Mahmoud, check their luggage and effects. You know what to do." |
The state KUNA news agency said Abbas would arrive Sunday on the first visit by a high-ranking Palestinian official to Kuwait since the troops of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded the emirate 14 years ago. Acting Palestinian Authority chairman Rawhi Fattuh, prime minister Ahmed Qorei and foreign minister Nabil Shaath will be among the Palestinian delegation. Abbas's visit comes just days after a two-day official visit by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the oil-rich emirate during which he discussed the need to "support the new Palestinian leadership." Relations between Kuwait and the Palestinians have remained frozen since the emirate accused the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of backing Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The emirate demanded a public apology from Arafat as a precondition to normalising ties with the Palestinians. An official visit by Abbas to Kuwait in August 2003, when he was the PA's prime minister, was called off due to differences over the proposed apology.
| I'd hold out for Yasser's apology. Might take a while. |
Abbas however visited Kuwait in May this year in his personal capacity to address a political symposium organized by the Kuwaiti parliament. He was received by a number of senior officials. |