Al-Hashimi, who was speaking to Editors-in-Chief, President of the Kuwaiti Journalists Society Ahmad Behbehani and Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) prior to his departure, dismissed the idea of any "bad thoughts" by Iraq towards Kuwait.
Kuwait is an independent and universally-recognized sovereign state, whose existence is legal and legitimate, he said.
He blamed the lack of agreement on the common border between Kuwait and Iraq on "technical rather than political factors." He called on Kuwait to help Iraq out of its crisis arguing that it was "beyond the power of the Iraqis to wriggle out of it." He urged the Iraqis, in all their political shades, to seek solutions to their problems through the legitimate authorities. He said they should recognize the government even if they did not see eye to eye with the official policy adopted by the cabinet.
He blamed the current unrest on the failure to abide by the government’s policy statement.
He added that investigations were underway on some recent catastrophes and dismissed the idea of a civil war in his country arguing that this meant that the government sided with one party against another. However, he accused law and order authorities of bias towards one group or another.
He invited all displaced households should return home under government protection.
He said the Iraqi authorities have failed to live to their promises, specifically at economic level and have failed to face the challenges of repairing the country’s infrastructure installations.
He stressed that the lack of basic facilities like water and electricity and the lack of employment opportunities could aggravate existing tensions and increase violence among warring sides.
Al-Hashimi is visiting Kuwait by invitation from His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
