Manama: Kuwait has rejected claims, allegedly made by Iraq's ambassador Qais Al Azzawi, to the Arab League, that his country does not recognise the existing borders between Iraq and Kuwait.
Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry summoned the Iraqi Ambassador to Kuwait, Mohammed Bahr Al Uloom, over the remarks.
The Ministry handed him a memo of protest over Qais Al Azzawi's statements on Tuesday, which cast doubts about UN Security Council resolutions on the demarcation of borders between Iraq and Kuwait.
In the memo, the ministry "emphatically condemned" such statements from an Iraqi government representative at the Arab League, and said that "Al Azzawi's call for the demarcation of the borders between both nations runs counter to relevant UN Security Council and international legitimacy resolutions.”
"The border issue has been finally settled through international legitimacy and both countries' governments," the ministry said.
In its memo, it asked for clarifications from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry over the recent remarks, the Kuwait Times reported on Wednesday. Kuwaiti MP Maasouma Al Mubarak said that Bahr Al Olum told her that Al Azzawi had been misquoted and categorically denied that the Arab League representative had meant to say such a thing.
MP Musallam Al Barrak said, however, that he was not surprised by the Iraqi statement. "I do not find this statement strange, and we tell Al Azzawi that neither you nor your government can change anything," he said. "Our Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah, who’s dealing lightly and diffidently with others, should deal with them in a better way. At the same time, if the Iraqi Ambassador to Kuwait had received a denial from Al Azawi, he should explain that to the Kuwait media."
MP Daifallah Buramya said that "Al Azzawi's statements do not bother us and Iraq should stop talking about this topic because the border issue between the two countries has been sealed."
The issue of the Iraq-Kuwait border, a long standing problem that was seemingly resolved by the United Nations, was revived on Tuesday following remarks attributed to Al Azzawi in which he allegedly said that Iraq rejected the UN demarcation stipulated in Resolution 833.
Al Azzawi allegedly said that the Security Council did not have the right to decide on the borders of any country. "The border issue is bigger than the financial compensation and needs a lot of time to be resolved with the brothers in Kuwait."
