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Tensions in the Middle East have recently been subsiding after several ground-breaking agreements between key world players were reached. The successful Russian initiative on Syrian chemical weapons disarmament was followed by a deal on the Iranian nuclear program. In addition, the Geneva-2 peace conference is nearing. Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and a senior member of the ruling family, said in an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia that he welcomed the Iranian nuclear deal and preparations for the Geneva-2 conference on Syria.
Your Excellency, let’s speak about the situation in Syria. What does Kuwait believe the solution to this complicated problem could be?
Indeed, this is a very complicated problem. The international community has been trying to solve it for more than two years and a half. We’re also making serious efforts in this direction in the framework of the UN, Arab League and other organizations. Kuwait, as President of the Arab League’s ministerial council, took part in the first Geneva conference on Syria in June 2012. Now we’re preparing the second one. We’ve always been saying that the consequences of what is going on in Syria are devastating for the country itself as well as for neighboring states and the entire region. And we already can see these consequences. Let’s look at a refugee problem – the number of refugees displaced inside of the country and their inflow to other states are increasing. The number of the Syrian refugees amounts to millions of people.
Russia believes that participation of the Middle East countries, including Iran, in the conference would have a beneficial effect. What’s your take on it?
There is an agreement that a wide range of countries and organizations one way or another involved in the Syrian conflict will take part in debates on the first day of the Geneva-2 conference. The activities will last all day long. Meetings between the Syrians will take place on the second day. We think that all the countries acting as intermediaries should take part in settling the Syrian conflict.
Do you think even Iran might play a positive role in the negotiating process?
Iran is very important for the Middle East region. And it also plays its role in the development of the situation in Syria. So Iran might become part of the solution to the Syrian problem. Kuwait speaks in favor of Iran being invited to the Geneva-2 conference.
Russia’s proposal concerning Syrian chemical weapons disarmament dissipated the tension and ruled out a military strike against Syria as an option. However, some Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, for instance, were dissatisfied with it. What is Kuwait’s stance on it?
Any military operation would have aggravated the situation in the region. A state of sheer anarchy would have been its result. It’s hard to imagine now where this path would have led us to. We would like to see countries, Russia and the US in particular, making even more efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian problem. It’s important that they managed to reach an agreement on the procedure of chemical weapons disarmament in Syria. But it’s also very important to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria.
Kuwait is going to host a large international meeting to raise aid for Syria in 2014. Why are the parties of the conflict not invited to take part in it?
The first donors’ meeting took place in Kuwait in this January. Owing to the meeting, we managed to raise a substantial amount of aid for the Syrian people. People in Syria and Syrian refugees are suffering a great deal. We should help them. We should provide humanitarian aid along with making efforts to put an end to the bloodshed.
Kuwait provides such aid on a regular basis. And we call for other nations to maintain their previous vows in time so that we could grant new aid for the Syrians at the next conference.
After the first donors’ meeting was held, UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon asked the Kuwaiti Emir to host another donor’s meeting in January 2014. Thus, the Geneva-2 conference will be held simultaneously with the Kuwait-2 donors’ meeting.
As far as participants of the meeting are concerned, the UN Secretary General determines them just like it he did for the first time. For our part, we’re going to do our best to make sure that the meeting will be successful and the Syrian people will get and make use of this aid.
Your Excellency, you visited Moscow this fall. What do you think about the results of your visit now?
That visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Russia. Kuwait highly appreciates Russia and the role it plays on the international stage. And we do appreciate and remember the support Russia offered us during hard times we had in the past (during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990).
Russia is a country which takes part in solving all the international problems. It’s a permanent UN Security Council member. Russia is a huge and important state. A while ago, my Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and I discussed both international problems and our bilateral cooperation. We came to a conclusion that we don’t use our cooperation to the full extent and outlined our top-priority development fields.
Besides, we agreed upon the visit of Kuwaiti Emir to Russia. No doubt, this visit will give impetus to Russian-Kuwaiti relations.
When you speak about the development of Russian-Kuwaiti relations, do you have the military cooperation in mind?
The Kuwaiti Defense Ministry takes interest in this sort of cooperation. Our military men visited several Russian military equipment exhibitions. We took a few pieces of such equipment for testing in order to see how it will behave in our climate or in a desert. And certain kinds of Russian equipment were already added to the Kuwait’s army weaponry. Now we’re looking in the direction of the latest Russian innovations.
Agreements on cooperation reached by our educational institutions are also of great importance. Kuwait is willing to develop trading relations with Russia. Recently, the Kuwait Investment Fund allocated $500 million as an investment in a series of projects in Russia. Hopefully, many of these plans will have been implemented by the spring of 2014 when His Excellency Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah visits Russia.
Kuwait-2 conference to take place simultaneously with Geneva-2 – Kuwaiti FM - News - The Voice of Russia: News, Breaking news, Politics, Economics, Business, Russia, International current events, Expert opinion, podcasts, Video
Your Excellency, let’s speak about the situation in Syria. What does Kuwait believe the solution to this complicated problem could be?
Indeed, this is a very complicated problem. The international community has been trying to solve it for more than two years and a half. We’re also making serious efforts in this direction in the framework of the UN, Arab League and other organizations. Kuwait, as President of the Arab League’s ministerial council, took part in the first Geneva conference on Syria in June 2012. Now we’re preparing the second one. We’ve always been saying that the consequences of what is going on in Syria are devastating for the country itself as well as for neighboring states and the entire region. And we already can see these consequences. Let’s look at a refugee problem – the number of refugees displaced inside of the country and their inflow to other states are increasing. The number of the Syrian refugees amounts to millions of people.
Russia believes that participation of the Middle East countries, including Iran, in the conference would have a beneficial effect. What’s your take on it?
There is an agreement that a wide range of countries and organizations one way or another involved in the Syrian conflict will take part in debates on the first day of the Geneva-2 conference. The activities will last all day long. Meetings between the Syrians will take place on the second day. We think that all the countries acting as intermediaries should take part in settling the Syrian conflict.
Do you think even Iran might play a positive role in the negotiating process?
Iran is very important for the Middle East region. And it also plays its role in the development of the situation in Syria. So Iran might become part of the solution to the Syrian problem. Kuwait speaks in favor of Iran being invited to the Geneva-2 conference.
Russia’s proposal concerning Syrian chemical weapons disarmament dissipated the tension and ruled out a military strike against Syria as an option. However, some Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, for instance, were dissatisfied with it. What is Kuwait’s stance on it?
Any military operation would have aggravated the situation in the region. A state of sheer anarchy would have been its result. It’s hard to imagine now where this path would have led us to. We would like to see countries, Russia and the US in particular, making even more efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian problem. It’s important that they managed to reach an agreement on the procedure of chemical weapons disarmament in Syria. But it’s also very important to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria.
Kuwait is going to host a large international meeting to raise aid for Syria in 2014. Why are the parties of the conflict not invited to take part in it?
The first donors’ meeting took place in Kuwait in this January. Owing to the meeting, we managed to raise a substantial amount of aid for the Syrian people. People in Syria and Syrian refugees are suffering a great deal. We should help them. We should provide humanitarian aid along with making efforts to put an end to the bloodshed.
Kuwait provides such aid on a regular basis. And we call for other nations to maintain their previous vows in time so that we could grant new aid for the Syrians at the next conference.
After the first donors’ meeting was held, UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon asked the Kuwaiti Emir to host another donor’s meeting in January 2014. Thus, the Geneva-2 conference will be held simultaneously with the Kuwait-2 donors’ meeting.
As far as participants of the meeting are concerned, the UN Secretary General determines them just like it he did for the first time. For our part, we’re going to do our best to make sure that the meeting will be successful and the Syrian people will get and make use of this aid.
Your Excellency, you visited Moscow this fall. What do you think about the results of your visit now?
That visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Russia. Kuwait highly appreciates Russia and the role it plays on the international stage. And we do appreciate and remember the support Russia offered us during hard times we had in the past (during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990).
Russia is a country which takes part in solving all the international problems. It’s a permanent UN Security Council member. Russia is a huge and important state. A while ago, my Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and I discussed both international problems and our bilateral cooperation. We came to a conclusion that we don’t use our cooperation to the full extent and outlined our top-priority development fields.
Besides, we agreed upon the visit of Kuwaiti Emir to Russia. No doubt, this visit will give impetus to Russian-Kuwaiti relations.
When you speak about the development of Russian-Kuwaiti relations, do you have the military cooperation in mind?
The Kuwaiti Defense Ministry takes interest in this sort of cooperation. Our military men visited several Russian military equipment exhibitions. We took a few pieces of such equipment for testing in order to see how it will behave in our climate or in a desert. And certain kinds of Russian equipment were already added to the Kuwait’s army weaponry. Now we’re looking in the direction of the latest Russian innovations.
Agreements on cooperation reached by our educational institutions are also of great importance. Kuwait is willing to develop trading relations with Russia. Recently, the Kuwait Investment Fund allocated $500 million as an investment in a series of projects in Russia. Hopefully, many of these plans will have been implemented by the spring of 2014 when His Excellency Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah IV Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah visits Russia.
Kuwait-2 conference to take place simultaneously with Geneva-2 – Kuwaiti FM - News - The Voice of Russia: News, Breaking news, Politics, Economics, Business, Russia, International current events, Expert opinion, podcasts, Video
