Kuwait-Iraq diplomacy blooms again, 18 years after war
Ambassador Ali Mumin remembers invasion and the Persian Gulf War well, but he blames Saddam Hussein, not the Iraqi people.
Reported from Baghdad — Ambassador Ali Mumin dug into his Iraqi-style meat kebab in a small restaurant at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone. He let out a laugh, nonchalant about his task: reopening Kuwait's embassy in Iraq, 18 years after Saddam Hussein's army invaded his oil-rich emirate.
The retired general, who served with Kuwaiti forces alongside the Americans in the 1991 Persian Gulf War that followed the invasion, was ensconced Wednesday at the hotel, once used by the elite of Hussein's regime. And he is glad to be here.
Partway through his first day as Kuwaiti ambassador, Mumin had already presented his credentials to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Then he settled in at the Rashid, dressed in traditional white robes with a brown overcoat and a starchy tribal headdress, a gold bracelet jangling on his wrist.
Mumin, accompanied by bodyguards, joked with friends and celebrated this milestone in the two nations' sometimes bitter history.
The white-haired diplomat was tapped for this job for more than two years ago, but the time wasn't right, he said.
"Now that the Iraq government has succeeded in the political and security areas, there is enough justification for Kuwait to be represented in Baghdad instead of waiting any longer," he said between sips of tea. "We can't abandon our brothers. We aim to reach them and we aim to establish a long-lasting relationship."
Kuwait isn't the only Arab country to upgrade its ties with Iraq. Since 2003, the primarily Sunni Muslim Arab world has viewed Iraq with suspicion, both for the country's occupation by U.S. forces and for its new Shiite power brokers, many of whom have close ties to regional rival Iran. An Egyptian diplomat posted to Baghdad was kidnapped and slain by a militant Sunni group in 2005.
Now, motivated by a wish for better ties and an unwillingness to cede ground to Iran, Arab states have started to return. This month, Bahrain, Jordan and Syria posted ambassadors to Baghdad; the United Arab Emirates did the same last month.
"The Iraqi government has made a good effort to reach the Arabs and prove to them they really consider themselves members of the Arab League and Arab nation," Mumin said.
The retired general has bad memories of Hussein. He doesn't even like to say the man's name. He remembers watching the 1990 invasion of Kuwait unfold on television from the North African city of Tunis, where he was posted to the military committee of the Arab League. There he saw then-Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz denounce the government of Kuwait, which Hussein considered a renegade province of Iraq.
