ARAB-AFFAIRS - Sept. 14 - Kuwait Denies Iraqi Charge Of Oil Smuggling.

Kuwait's FM Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah denies Iraqi allegations that his country was stealing Iraqi crude oil. Shaikh Sabah says: "We haven't stolen anything. If you take from you own land it can't be stealing". Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rasheed was quoted as accusing Kuwait of "practising an act of sabotage against Iraqi oil fields by digging oil wells in a joint zone [straddling the border] in order to deplete Iraqi underground oil reserve". Baghdad said it would take unspecified measures against Kuwait to stop what it called sabotage and theft from southern Iraq oil fields. (Iraq made similar claims before marching into Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, which led to the Gulf War. The exchange underlines renewed tensions in the ME after the US claimed that an Iraqi fighter jet flew over Saudi Arabia in a challenge to no-fly zones enforced by the US and Britain.) Shaikh Sabah says Iraq has been acting in a threatening manner by flying jets close to the Kuwaiti and Saudi borders. He says Kuwait was on alert but did not expect any military action.

He says: "Now they are starting to send their airplanes to violate the airspace [near] the border. Not only Kuwait's border but also Saudi Arabia's". British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain says Iraq would suffer if it takes military action on Kuwait. Hain says: "Iraq had better be warned in no uncertain terms that if they try to replay history, they will be badly hit. It is as simple as that". (Iraq for several years has attempted to entice Arab states to ignore UN sanctions and trade with Baghdad.) Shaikh Sabah predicts that the coalition led by the US that repelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991 would be cohesive if Iraq does take up arms against Kuwait. Shaikh Sabah says: "We hope it will not reach the level of using force. But if the situation will call for using force, it will come not only from the UAE, but all the GCC members". (The GCC includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE.) Shaikh Sabah says: "We think that the whole world will not allow one man to challenge it". He says the entire episode is to remind the Western world that Iraq is still a force. He says: "The American elections will be very soon and they want to show that they are here". British FM Cook says London did not expect Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein to pull an "October surprise" by withdrawing its oil from the market. (Iraq accounts for about 4% of world daily oil production.)