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Kuwait backs alliances against Islamic State, but no troops

KUWAIT, February 9, 2016

Kuwait backs international efforts against hardline Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria although the Gulf Arab state's constitution prevents it from sending troops to fight abroad, a senior Kuwaiti official said.

Kuwait, a US ally and neighbour of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, is part of a 34-nation alliance announced by Riyadh in December aimed at countering Islamic State and Al Qaeda in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.

Several Gulf states including Kuwait also provide varying kinds of support to a US-led coalition that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014.

The issue of Gulf Arab participation in Iraq and Syria has come to the fore because Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it was open to sending special forces to Syria, and the UAE has said it would be willing to send troops to train and support a US-led coalition against Islamic State.

"Kuwait stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers in Saudi on all fronts. We are always ready and able to provide what is needed to our Gulf partners within the confines of our constitution," said Sheikh Mohammad Al Mubarak Al Sabah, Kuwait's minister for cabinet affairs, in an interview in Dubai.

Speaking late on Tuesday, he said this could be "intelligence-sharing, the provision of establishments required by the coalition to facilitate their activities". He did not elaborate.

Diplomats in the region have said Kuwait has permitted some foreign air forces participating in the US-led coalition to use airfields in its territory.

Major Opec oil producer Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq in 1990, can declare defensive war if under direct threat but offensive war is prohibited by the constitution.

Home to several US military bases, Kuwait suffered its deadliest militant attack in decades in June when a Saudi suicide bomber blew himself up inside a packed Shi'ite mosque, killing 27 people. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

"It's very difficult to stop a lone, deranged person from doing something like that," Sheikh Mohammad, a member of the ruling Al Sabah family said, when asked about security measures since the attack.

"However many new procedures have been put in place in public areas in order to make it more difficult ... be it religious venues or commercial or social venues."

This included new legislation requiring government buildings to install closed-circuit television and for private institutions to have CCTV with a data log in public areas.

He described the attack as a failed attempt to stir up sectarian tensions in Kuwait, which is home to a sizeable Shi'ite minority active in business and politics.

"If anything, that bombing showed the world, and showed specifically the deranged people who adhere to this skewed doctrine, what it is to be Kuwaiti," said Sheikh Mohammad.

"It brought us closer together," he said, because it had reawakened the idea of Kuwaiti national identity. -Reuters




Tags: Kuwait | Islamic State |

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