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LOCAL ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019 4 A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION DIWANIYA ‘Rapprochement only way out’ ‘Iran attitude fuels tensions’ “SINCE more than a fortnight, the Iranian ambassador to the State of Kuwait, gave a long interview in which he explained the Iranian attitudes over various issues,” col- umnist, former envoy of the State of Kuwait to the United Nations and former secretary general of the Gulf Coop- eration Council (GCC) and the incumbent chairman of the Diplomatic Centre for the Strategic Studies Abdullah Bishara wrote for Al-Qabas daily. “The most prominent point raised during the interview was the ambassador’s ‘wish’ for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to toe the Kuwaiti line in terms of commitment to the policy of nonalignment. “He repeated Iran’s well-known attitude for the Gulf states to get involved in discussions with Iran to reach an agreement over regional security. “Following this interview, I have remembered the rule set by the GCC leaders for the need for mutual understanding with Iran at the regional level. In this context, we say since the foundation of the GCC in 1981, the Gulf states urged Iran to be involved in a mutual un- derstanding based on criteria of the international law embodied in the United Nations Charter, which have never been weakened – a document containing ten principles – and was submitted to the Iranian leadership in 1984 following the interception of the Kuwaiti oil tanker by an Ira- nian patrol boat. “Based on the importance of the dialogue with Iran for the GCC states, the GCC leaders authorized the then Kuwaiti deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) minister of state for foreign affairs Rashid Bin Abdullah to hand over the document to the Iranian leadership. “But it seems the Iranian party failed to study thorough- ly the GCC document, but made haste to insert a precondi- tion in the proposed dialogue – to end the foreign military existence in the Gulf waters – and this showed the Iranians were not serious about the issue. Moreover, they were ig- norant of the international dimension and the global inter- ests in the Gulf region. “Not just that, the response showed the men in Tehran were ignorant about the reality of the Gulf region through which as much as 40 percent of the world’s energy re- quirements was exported as well as the strategic signifi- cance of this part of the world because the world economy depended on this passageway to prevent a state of unrest and turmoil. “The Iranian attitude did not change, and we know the Iranian leadership still calls for the withdrawal of interna- tional troops from the Gulf, treating the Gulf waters like a pond or the Lake Victoria of Uganda, ignoring the fact that the Gulf is an oasis that exports the rare commodity, the absence of which can negatively affect the world sanity. “However, in 1984 amid the persistent interruption of the Kuwaiti oil tankers, the GCC member states, filed a collective complaint with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the then Kuwaiti foreign minister His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad along with his counterpart when the delegation arrived in New York. “The UNSC seriously discussed the GCC complaint motivated by its realization of the danger of the situation in the region, and the Council adopted in consensus the Resolution No. 552 on June 1, 1984. “Through this resolution, the UNSC, finally in an un- controversial manner declared the Strait of Hormuz as in- ternational waterway reflecting the interests of the global family and termed it the international passageway. “As a matter of fact, the complaint was not to condemn Iran but to internationalize the usage of this passageway of the Gulf region for the benefit of the global family. “It is needless we feel the pain for the sake of Iran and the Iranians who currently suffer because of the in- ternational sanctions imposed on Tehran for the past two decades and more because these sanctions were stretched during the reign of the incumbent US President Donald Trump. “In other words, the Iranians will harvest nothing through the confrontation policy but suffer from poor standard of living and suffocation caused by the isolation and the poor credibility of its leadership which deals ar- rogantly always challenging the international community. Add to this the Iranian bad attitude towards neighbors in the area of foreign relations because it has always been hesitant and caught between the web of cruelty of the ex- tremists and weakness of the moderates. “Meanwhile, we say there is no state in the world which believes in a divine right to intervene in the internal affairs of others on the pretext of protecting the rights of the un- derdogs, because there is nothing in the international law called intervention for the sake of the downtrodden and there is no rule in the New World Order that justifies the right of instigation or calling for weakening the rights of the neighboring countries. “Likewise, there is no logic to allow the parties to the dialogue to fortify through ambiguous religious explana- tions commensurate with the principles which the other states abide by. “As a matter of fact, the existence of Iran outside the world political map is one of the existing problems, it is not a problem between the Gulf states and Iran, rather it is a problem between the latter and the international com- munity. “In this context, we say although Iran had signed the international agreement to abide by the non-proliferation of the nuclear weapons, it actually violated the agreement post the Iranian revolution by building a secret site to con- duct nuclear tests, but the US detected this site in 2002. “Hence, due to these violations, the US got involved in secret negotiations with Iran over the latter’s nuclear pro- gram in Muscat, the capital of Oman and these negotia- tions resulted in signing the Nuclear Deal by the P5+1 in 2013, but president Trump pulled the US out of this pact. “Returning to the problem between Iran and the states of the region, we say the Gulf states have their own sov- ereignty, citizenship, borders, identity, civil community, national heritage of which they are proud – the ages old legitimacy supported by facts. “Apart from the above, these states have a modern con- cept that governs their relations with other states and their commitment to the international law and global political order. “But the revolutionary Iran is not in a position to co- exist with the above specifications, because the motive of the Iranian strategic intellectual storage is based on some strange juristic explanations that have nothing to do with the rules of the global action. “Such being the case, and based on the painful reality, we saw how the world has shown reservations over ac- cepting ideas propounded by Iran because it has shown no interest in these ideas especially the behavior of the Iranian leadership which is always tainted with extreme warnings. “This means the tension in the region shall continue to exist as long as Iran remains committed to its current ‘weird diplomacy’ unlike other states which always abide by international systems, because Iranian movements are ambiguous as the Iranian leadership believes in such moves. “However, we have no objection if the Iranians practise what they want within their powers inside the internation- ally recognized borders and not export its ideas abroad because the contradictory philosophies in the region brew tension. “Meanwhile, the UNSC on Feb 24, 1986 had issued a Resolution No. 582 condemning both Iran and Iraq for violating the international law and the use of chemical weapons by Iraq. This resolution called for stopping at- tacks on shipping. “In light of the record of violating the laws, we sug- gest that the solution remains in the hands of the Iranians, particularly since we know that Iran which has joined the international family to remain committed to the rules and regulations has eventually relinquished their responsibility and continues to hurt the members of this family includ- ing itself.” Also: “In the City of Tripoli, Lebanon, one female Christian judge issued a strange verdict against three Muslim youth who had entered a church in Akkar near Tripoli and de- faced a picture of the Virgin Mary,” columnist and for- mer Kuwaiti ambassador Ahmad Al-Dawas wrote for Al- Seyassah daily. “However, the verdict looks strange and is the first of its kind to be issued by the Lebanese judiciary. In other words, the judge instead of putting the defendants behind bars for desecrating the divine religion, which according to the Lebanese could put the defendants behinds bars for three to six months, she ordered them to memorize by heart some verses including the fourth longest Al-Imran Sura from the Holy Quran consisting of 200 verses which talks about the Virgin Mother Mary. “The Lebanese poured accolades over the verdict at political and popular levels, where Mrs. Mahasen Hadara called for honoring the judge by saying, ‘I have never seen throughout my life a Muslim official honoring our Islam as judge Jusline Matta has done.’ “The Syrian attorney Michal Shammas on his Facebook said: ‘There is a great difference between the judges who send people to prison and a judge who educate people as well as there is a great difference between judicial reforms and jailing and revenge.’ “He added, ‘Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, said a good judge and a bad law would be one thousand times better than a good law and a bad judge.’ “The verdict in question was praised by the Lebanese and many Lebanese politicians including the Prime Min- ister Saad Al-Hariri has lauded the verdict who described it on his official account on Twitter as ‘the peak of justice and teaching harmony between Muslims and Christians’. “The former Lebanese prime minister Najeeb Miqati also praised the verdict while the Chairman of the Islamic Center for Studies and Media judge Sheikh Khaldoun Oraimet said, ‘The verdict obliges the culprits to memo- rize by heart some verses of the Holy Quran and this con- firms the position of the Virgin Mary and Jesus (PBUH) in Islam. Moreover, this shall help project the real dogma which calls for tolerance before the non Muslims, and this verdict shall help to ingrain co-existence particularly in Lebanon which is distinguished by various doctrines and sects.’ “Meanwhile, the Metropolitan of Sidon and Dei Al- Qamar for Maronites Maroon Al-Ammar, praised the ver- dict in question. “But the judge Jusline Matta did not comment on her verdict, because in principle, the judges in Lebanon are not allowed to comment on their verdicts through the media. “By the by, we would like hereby to cite that Fares Al- Khouri , a Christian was the first permanent envoy of Syria to the United Nations, a fierce defender of Syria’s inde- pendence from French imperialism. “In this context, we cite how Al-Khouri once intention- ally sat on the seat of the French envoy to the United Na- tions, making France very angry, but Al-Khoury, respond- ed to the anger by famously saying, ‘You got angry but you could not bear to see me sitting on your chair just for half an hour, then how do you accept to see your armies staying in our country for more than 25 years.’ “Not only that, when the French President General De Gaulle once told him (Al-Khouri) that France had come to Syria to protect the Christians in the East, Fares Al-Khouri on Friday went to the Amawi Mosque and delivered a speech in which he said France claims that it has occupied Syria to protect us as Christians from the Muslims, then he would like as a Christian to testify there is no God but Allah. “However, following this speech all worshippers at the Amawi Mosque gathered around him and lifted him on their shoulders and took him around Damascus in a touch- ing scene and the people of Damascus including the Chris- tians organized an overwhelming demonstration covered entire Damascus chanting, ‘There is no God, but Allah’. “As a matter of fact, Al-Khouri is the founder of Arab Institute for Rights. He has contributed to the foundation of the Arab Scientific Complex but what is strange during his tenure is the decision taken by the Syrian government to appoint him as the Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Af- fairs where the then Syrian MP Abdulhameed Al-Tabba’a defended him by saying, ‘We trust you to protect our Awqaf more than ourselves.’ “We pray to Almighty Allah to bestow His mercy upon Fares Al-Khouri, the great Syrian icon and an ideal hu- man being. We also praise what has been done by Judge Jusline Matta.” ❑ ❑ ❑ “Last week, Kuwait suffered from a major crisis – the fish price hike – due to what was described as manipu- lation of prices by a number of traders who reduced the supply of fish to the market in order to gain bigger profit,” columnist Zayed Al-Zaid wrote for Annahar daily. “The Ministry of Commerce and Industry tried to firmly deal with the manipulators by threatening to withdraw the licenses of fishermen who tried to go on strike in a bid to raise prices, and deployment of officials from the ministry throughout the fish market to monitor the mechanisms of sale and stop manipulations. To some extent, these meas- ures succeeded in controlling the market. Nevertheless, in many other cases, traders are stronger than government decisions as they ignore the regulations and sell at prices they specified. “What concerns us in this incident, which has become a ‘crisis’ added to other crises related to the prices of eggs, tomatoes and other important products, is the transforma- tion of a simple administrative procedure and a trivial task such as determining the price of a commodity that can be carried out by a regular employee in the ministry into a major crisis on newspaper headlines. People spread their news and videos which occupied the Kuwaiti society for several days. This is added to statements issued by law- makers, overlapping with justifications of the government to turn the situation into a tragicomedy scene. “These simple crises reveal the big failure we are ex- periencing. What happened can be justified if it occurred some hundred years ago where it was common for a State to fail to control prices due to lack of technology. What happened recently cannot be justified since we have a government which manages billions of our money abroad. This makes us afraid that such crises are likely to recur through other issues which could be more dangerous than fish and tomato prices. Traders who manipulated fish pric- es are classified as medium traders as they do not include billionaires and influential persons. Let us imagine what major traders can do in case they want to impose their own will on citizens.” — Compiled by Zaki Taleb Bishara KUNA photo The Embassy of Kuwait in Ghana receives a donation. Kuwait partakes in 20th ’versary of Turkey’s earthquake in Izmit Cooperation, strong ties pledged ANKARA, Aug 17, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Ambassador to Turkey Ghassan Al-Zawawi took part in commemorat- ing the 20th anniversary of the tragic Izmit earthquake, which struck the Sea of Marmara region in 1999. The commemoration was held at the Search and Rescue Association (AKUT) headquarters in the north- western province of Kocaeli’s Gol- cuk, Kuwaiti embassy said in a state- ment on Friday. Inviting Al-Zawawi to participate in the event is a gesture of appreciation by the Golcuk municipality to Kuwait’s hu- manitarian contribution and aid to Tur- key in the quake’s aftermath, it added. For his part, Al-Zawawi expressed, in his speech, Kuwait’s sympathy and sor- row over victims of the tragic incident, reiterating its keenness to support all hu- manitarian activities and efforts around the world as part of its foreign policy. He also recalled the international ap- preciation of Kuwait’s humanitarian activities worldwide that resulted in the UN’s naming His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah as “Leader of Humanitarian Ac- tion”, the first-ever title in history given to a state leader, and Kuwait as “Center for Humanitarian Action”. Furthermore, the Kuwaiti diplomat stressed the importance of Kuwaiti- Turkish relationship and cooperation in regional issues and humanitarian ac- tivities. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Eco- nomic Development (KFAED) granted a USD 53 million-worth loan to Turkey to reconstruct a road network connecting housing units, built post the 1999 Izmit earthquake. KFAED granted another loan amounting USD 28.3 million to rehabili- tate the quake-damaged infrastructure in the Marmara Sea region. His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sa- bah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has personally donated USD one million as a humanitarian contribution to pro- vide relief for victims of the devastat- ing earthquake, and help alleviate their suffering. Moreover, several Kuwaiti philan- thropic societies provided relief, aid, and financial support to the quake victims. A devastating 7.5-magnitude earth- quake struck the Sea of Marmara re- gion of Turkey on August 17, 1999, and caused death to over 17,000 people. Cable theft disrupts telephone service KUWAIT CITY, Aug 17: Four hun- dred telephone lines serving vital government agencies, in addition to the military hospital and other plac- es were cut off following the theft of about 800-meter cable in Sabhan, reports Al-Rai daily. According to security sources the thief used a saw to cut the cable after pulling it out in spite of the fact that the cable is made of copper and is heavy. The security authorities will check the CCTV footage of the cameras installed nearby in a bid to identify the culprits.
