Kuwait has denied Iraqi accusations that Kuwaiti boats had intercepted Iraqi fishing boats within their country's territorial waters, a newspaper reported on Wednesday October 24.
First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told the daily Al-Seyassah that the Iraqi allegations were "incorrect." He said Kuwait was drafting a document to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the subject.
On Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri alleged in a message to Annan that Kuwaiti coastguards had intercepted five Iraqi fishing boats close to Iraqi shores in northern Gulf waters and attacked the fishermen aboard.
Iraq has repeatedly accused Kuwait, which it invaded in 1990 and occupied for seven months, of "pirate" acts against its boats in the Gulf waters. Kuwait in turn regularly announces the interception of Iraqi boats carrying goods in violation of the embargo imposed by the United Nations on Baghdad since the invasion. — (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
