BAGHDAD: Kuwait’s prime minister arrived to a red carpet welcome in Baghdad on Wednesday in the first such visit since Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded the oil-rich emirate in 1990.
Television footage showed Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah being greeted at Baghdad airport by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and other officials.
The Kuwaiti national anthem played as Sheikh Nasser walked down a red carpet to the group of waiting dignitaries.
The visit is the first by a Kuwaiti premier to Iraq since Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah visited in 1989, and the first since Saddam ordered his forces to invade Kuwait in August 1990.
The assault was rapidly met with a concerted international military response that seven months later pushed Saddam’s forces out of the emirate. The dictator was ousted by a US-led coalition in 2003.
After the airport welcome, Sheikh Nasser and Maliki held talks amid "a positive atmosphere," said Ali Moussawi, an advisor to the Iraqi prime minister.
"The two sides showed their insistence on developing relations, and getting over problems of borders and economic and security files," he said.
Kuwait also expressed support for a planned Arab summit in Baghdad, which is scheduled for March, in which the country will be represented by its emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Moussawi said.
"Kuwait expressed its desire for the summit to succeed, and will participate in it, represented by the emir of the country, and will make efforts to support Iraq in getting out of Chapter Seven," he said, referring to the section of the UN Charter under which sanctions were imposed on Iraq.
Moussawi added that Sheikh Nasser and Maliki agreed to form a committee to address outstanding issues between the two countries, which will be jointly headed by the Iraqi and Kuwaiti foreign ministers.
"The committees will meet soon, to find solutions via dialogue," he said.
Sheikh Nasser’s visit comes two days after Iraqi fishermen killed a Kuwaiti coast guard and a fishing boat was sunk during a clash at sea.
Kuwait’s interior ministry said the skirmish occurred when an Iraqi boat entered Kuwaiti waters and refused orders from a coast guard patrol to stop.
There are a number of outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait relating to the 1990 Iraqi invasion and subsequent occupation of Kuwait.
Iraq still pays five percent of revenues from its oil sales into a reparations fund for Kuwait, which is demanding that Baghdad pay another $22 billion. Kuwait has received about $13 billion in reparations.
Kuwait also demands that Iraq return property stolen during the occupation and explain the fate of hundreds of missing Kuwaitis.
In December, the emirate urged Iraq to fully apply all international resolutions and settle outstanding issues after the UN Security Council voted to end key sanctions imposed on Baghdad.
At the time, the Kuwaiti cabinet also welcomed UN Security Council resolutions to halt some sanctions that were imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion.
Kuwait said then that "commitment to serious and full implementation of Security Council resolutions related to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait will close all files and settle outstanding issues.
"This will also lay foundations for strong relations based on the respect of sovereignty and independence and the principle of good neighborly relations and non-interference in internal affairs," it said.
In August, Kuwait and Iraq agreed in principle on a deal to regulate production from the border oilfields that were at the center of the Gulf war.
A number of oilfields lie on the border between the two Arab countries, including Iraq’s giant Rumaila which extends into Kuwait where it is known as Ritqa. There are other such fields in Zubair and Safwan.
Saddam accused Kuwait of stealing oil from Rumaila when his forces launched their invasion in 1990.
