By Denis Korkodinov – Interview with Dr. Zafer Muhammad Alajmi
Kuwait may become a main mediator in negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Considering also the withdrawal of US troops from Syria to the Emirate, and taking in account that Kuwait is situated in an arena for confrontation between leading regional players, its foreign policy acquires relevance.
Especially for World Geostrategic Insights, we talked about this with Zafer Muhammad Alajmi, Executive Manager of Gulf Monitoring Group, History lecturer – Kuwait University, Air Force Colonel (R).
1. In early October 2019, a number of Saudi officials made statements that Kuwait could become the main mediator in establishing relations between Riyadh and Tehran. In turn, the Iranian ambassador to Kuwait, Mohammad Irani, approved the Saudi proposal and expressed the hope that the mediation of Kuwait could play a positive role in the process of pacificationof the countries in the region. Meanwhile, shortly before that, Saudi Arabia appealed to Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, so that it was Baghdad that acted as an intermediary between the Saudis and the Ayatollah regime. Does this mean that currently Riyadh does not consider Iraq as a mediator in the process of neutralizing the “Iranian crisis”, on for that the role of mediator is proposed to Kuwait? How likely is it that Kuwait will be able to establish positive relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran? Can Kuwait force the warring parties to abandon plans for mutual destruction? Will Washington, and in particular, Donald Trump, object? What is Kuwait ready to offer in order to neutralize the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran?
– To answer this question I have to mention the four pillars of the Kuwait foreign policy: The not interference in the domestic issues of the governments of other countries; The always calling for the peaceful solution of conflicts between countries; The respect for the civility of the other countries; The respect for the aims and principles of the United Nations.
So those four pillars include mediating, and Saudi and Iran are close neighbor. So I think this part is already included in the Kuwait foreign policy, and I expect that Kuwait will accept this mission because this is what we’ve been calling since the beginning of the tension between the GCC s and Iran. But it is necessary to underline that you cannot just single out Saudi as going against Iran. Are all the GCC countries, with respect to Qatar position, because of the Gulf crisis.
The two sides did not reach the point of destroying each other, so you, in your answer, are taking extreme point of view in this issue. Also, I have to mention that Kuwait, two decades ago, failed to stop the war between Iran and Iraq, because, with reference to our capabilities, we are a small nation, we don’t have a lot of cards to play. But it doesn’t mean that we are not trying to stop the tension between the two sides of the Gulf. We are part of the Arab side and the Gulf. We are part of the GCC , so we are backing Saudi terms in this issue, but it doesn’t mean we are not looking for a peaceful solution to this issue. We condemned the attack on Aramco, and we said the Iranian are not supposed to support the Houthis because our forces military forces are fighting the Houthis in Yemen, alongside, with the Saudi Emirates and Bahraini.
Regarding to your question if Washington is going to reject, or having an objection, about the Kuwait interfering or trying to find a solution, I don’t think that Kuwaiti government will listen to any objection from Trump or others. We are not under the American umbrella , when it comes to politics. I don’t think we are under their influence. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have a good relationship with US, but it does not exceed the respecting of our point of view. We went against the Americans in lot of issues including the Palestinian and the Syrians issues.
Now, regarding to what Kuwait can do to solve and put an end the conflict between Saudi and Iran, we have to remember that Kuwait has a soft power, because we are a small nation, but we have good intentions , we have funds , we have Islamic ties with a lot of countries. We have what you call the soft power that includes helping countries during crisis. Kuwait has a loud voice in the international community. We are in the UN, and we are representing the Islamic and Arab countries in the Security Council , so now for two years. Also, Kuwait is run by the diplomat number one in the Arab areas, who achieved a lot of success in the past years. So we are capable of doing , and we have a good record in solving a lot of crisis in the Gulf and in the area.
2. On the eve of the Turkish military operation “Source of Peace” in northeastern Syria, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry issued an official statement that Turkey’s efforts to suppress Kurdish armed groups pose a direct threat to security and stability in the region. In this regard, what diplomatic and military measures does Kuwait take in order to neutralize the Turkish-Kurdish conflict? Can Kuwait mediate between Ankara and YPG?
– This front is very far from Kuwait, so we really don’t get involved in such things. It’s too far from Kuwait to be part of what’s going there on or to be affected by that. But if the two sides accept Kuwait as the center for peaceful talks between them, then we will take part.
3. Recently, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that about 1,000 US troops were relocated from northeastern Syria to Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait. In turn, the arrival of American troops in Iraq provoked sharp resistance from the local opposition, and, in particular, Ayatollah Muktada al-Sadr, who demanded the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq back to Syria. In addition, the redeployment of the US armed forces served as an additional reason for the intensification of protests in Iraq. By analogy with the Iraqi events, will not the relocation of American troops serve as a basis for social tension in Kuwait? Is there a risk of social unrest in Kuwait caused by the US military presence?
– First of all you have to remember that Muktada al-Sadr had a fight with the Americans. So there’s blood between them. And there’s going to be a a big resistance to the American presence in Iraqi, especially in southern Iraq. But you cannot compare Iraq to Kuwait. It’s totally different.
You mentioned that moving American forces to Kuwait might cause a social disturbance, and this is very interesting, because we never had such a thing in Kuwait history. We always depended on the strategic factor of the Gulf security, that means to counterbalance the Turks a century ago, and to counterbalance the Persian in the present time.
We have signed a lot of treaties with the British and with the Americans. So this strategic factor is very important to us. We always believed in the aid from a Western power, so it’s not going to cause any social disturbance. Also, since Kuwait liberation, in the last three decades, we have American bases in our territories.
So the Americans are already there and adding to them a thousand or a couple of thousands more won’t cause disturbance. We are very calm society. Kuwait is a very wealthy country, people go along with their living. The Americans are in their bases in the desert. They’re not part of the scene in Kuwait. So you cannot compare what’s in Iraq with what’s in Kuwait.
4. Besides the fact that Kuwait has huge oil reserves attractive to many countries of the world, your country still has a military advantage in the event of a conflict with Iran. It was this circumstance that at one time was the main reason for the annexation of Kuwait by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. However, now that Kuwait, in general, supports the efforts of the White House administration to deter Iran, and Kuwait is wary of the Iranian nuclear program, will your country be the subject of a dispute between Washington and Tehran? Can Iran strike Kuwait, given your country’s favorable geographical position, in order to put pressure on the United States? How can Kuwait ensure its security in the event of a foreign invasion?
– Kuwait was important before the discovery of oil because of its strategic location. Even Saddam Hussein didn’t come just for the oil, because he knew that whole world would fight him, to kick him out of Kuwait, but because he wanted a passage from his country to the Gulf.
You asked me if Kuwait is going to help the USA in its confrontation with the Iranians. The American forces are already in Kuwait. I was delivering a speech to the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain on 12th of June. Kuwait is already commanding two of the combined forces that are in the fleet. In my paper I suggested that they should include GCC officers to be part of their efforts, because nobody know that the Gulf better than the sailors of the Gulf themselves. And a couple of months after that, I was very glad to hear that they nominated a Kuwaiti officer to be first in command and one of their branches concerning the Gulf Security.
So,yes, we are part of the American effort to counter Iran —not only us, also the Saudis, the Bahrain, most of the GCC countries are part of this force. We are part of the confrontation with Iran, even if we did not declare it as an enemy and a war is not declared between the two sides.
Do we fear the nuclear ambitions of Iran? Of course, because it’s only two hours from us. We do not fear an Iranian nuclear attack. But we fear that the leakage, we fear the mismanagement of those nuclear projects, the environmentally threat to us .
You mentioned that Kuwait is going to be an issue between Washington and Iran, Of course not. We are an independent country ,and I think Iran count on us, as in the middle between Iran and the rest of the Gulf countries, and between Iran and USA .
Nobody can eat Kuwait because it is to hard to be swallowed. An hundred years ago, the whole surrounding area took their turn trying to occupy Kuwait, and none of them succeeded. They failed mainly because we defended ourselves, but also because the other neighbors would refuse that one of them will occupy Kuwait. We are the smallest, but we are the one most important for balancing the scale between our neighbors.
Then you ask if we can defend ourselves? Yes, our diplomacy already succeeded in avoiding the fate of becoming the battleground between our neighbors. I can mention that during the Iran-Iraq war, they tried to get us involved, but we managed to avoid this fate, we don’t want to be the battle field between our neighbors. How can we do that? We succeeded by politics, we succeeded by diplomacy, we succeeded by the good intentions of showing them that we’re not a threat to anybody, even you can count us as part of that GCC coalition. I have to repeat this all the time because a lot of people think we don’t support Saudis or the rest of the GCC countries.
How do we defend ourselves? We have a defensive strategy that includes five layers. Our local defence forces are very well equipped. We are a small army but we are very effective. We have the air branch, we’ve been trained in the best military education institutes all over the world, in the South, in the Western and the East. I mean, Kuwait is the only country that used to send soldiers to train in the Soviet Union and in the USA at the same time.
The second layer is the collective security of the GCC countries. So we have the peninsula shield forces to defend us. The third layer is the defensive treaties with the major nations in the world: USA, UK, Germany, France, with even Moscow and China. We have a lot of defensive treaties to protect us in case of any attacks, and we took this lesson from the Iraqi threats all the time. The fourth layer of our defensive strategy is the defensive treaties between Arab nations, that works. The fifth layer is our friends all over the world. The Pakistanis will be ready to help Kuwait.
Then there are a lot of defensive agreements like, Istanbul cooperation initiative between Kuwait and the NATO. So the Kuwait security is well managed by the Kuwaitis, in the last decades, and since the existence of Kuwait.