External political affairs of Kuwait

This file concerns Kuwait’s external political affairs. It contains correspondence and memoranda on:

• The Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the Archbishop of Canterbury Terry Waite’s efforts to secure the release of four US hostages being held in Lebanon after the 1983 Kuwait bombings. The attack by seventeen members of Al Dawa on six key Kuwaiti installations, including the US and French Embassies; the detention of the Dawa members in Kuwait as a result; the capture of US and French hostages by Shia radicals in Lebanon, and their refusal to release them until the Al Dawa prisoners were released; critical statements in the Kuwaiti press about Waite and the US, including a report in Al Qabas accusing Waite of fighting for terrorist rights; and the US’s concerns over the Kuwaiti government’s intention to execute some of the Al Dawa prisoners
• Kuwait’s request for a defensive line on the UK’s use of Gurkhas in the 1982 Falklands conflict, in connection with Kuwait’s proposed draft convention to the UN outlawing mercenary activities as a threat to the peace and security of mankind
• Iraq supplying Kuwait with natural gas
• Kuwait’s attitude towards the Jordanian-Palestinian Agreement, 1985, the framework for a peace settlement in the Middle East
• Kuwait’s attitude towards Oman’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union
• A statement issued by the Kuwaiti Government on 13 October 1985, condemning the interception of a Egyptian airliner by the US
• An interview with the founder of the Abu Nidal Organisation Abu Nidal on 21 September 1985, in which Abu Nidal discusses his relations with Kuwait and other Palestinian leaders, and his present situation and activities
• Kuwait’s involvement in the Libyan-Tunisian border dispute
• The Jordanian reaction to the Kuwaiti National Assembly’s decision to cease Baghdad summit payments to Jordan, Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
• Speculations in the Kuwaiti press that the Palestinian political movement Al Ard will undertake suicide missions throughout the Middle East
• A demonstration held outside the Kuwaiti Embassy in Damascus on 10 June 1985 by 150 Iraqis of the ‘Pro-Iranian Tendency’ – the demonstrators chanted slogans criticising Kuwait’s support for the President of Iraq Saddam Hussein
• Kuwaiti press reports regarding Ahmed Al Sa’doun telling students to protest against the Amal Movement’s attacks in Beirut
• Belgian-Kuwaiti commercial relations
• China’s political, cultural and commercial interests in Kuwait; and a cutting from the Arab Times, ‘Chinese team to seek closer Kuwait ties’, 5 March 1985
• Kuwait and the Soviet Union signing a protocol for the exchange of radio and television programmes in 1985 and 1986
• Kuwait’s call for the end of the Iran-Iraq War
• The Kuwaiti Government giving assistance to Eritrean groups
• Visits to Kuwait by Ministers and Deputy Ministers from Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Hungary, Turkey, the Soviet Union, Germany, South Korea, China, Sudan, Britain, Jordan, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Senegal and Australia in 1985; King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan’s visit to Kuwait in May 1985 to inform the Kuwaiti Government on where matters stand on the Hussein-Arafat Accord, 1985; and the Leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) George Habash’s visit to Kuwait in June 1985 to congratulate the Amir of Kuwait Jabir Al Ahmad Al Sabah on surviving an assassination attempt, and to discuss the situation in Beirut
• The Kuwaiti Finance Minister Jassim Al Khorafi’s visit to Syria and Turkey between 20-26 September 1985.