October 1990, Page 37, 38

Personality

Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Saud Nasir Al Sabah

By Richard H. Curtiss

Until Aug. 2, 1990, the day two Iraqi armored columns and helicopter-borne Iraqi troops invaded his country, Sheikh Saud Nasir Al Sabah was well known to his diplomatic colleagues, but certainly not a familiar face to the American public.

Stationed in Washington for nine years and representing one of the world's smallest but wealthiest countries, the activities of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States were of interest within Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council and Arab-American circles, but not to the mainstream American media.

Only hours after the Iraqi invasion at 2 am Kuwaiti time, however, the 45-year-old Sheikh Saud, as he is known to his colleagues, was holding a press conference carried live on radio and television networks across the United States, and reported in detail in every American newspaper. His message was stark and urgent:

"We appeal to all of our friends around the world, including the United States, to come to our aid. . . We are desperate for any kind of assistance we can get. . . There is fighting going on in different areas in Kuwait and there is the intention on the part of the Kuwaitis, even though they have been overwhelmed by this aggressive force, to fight for their existence. . . Casualties are many in Kuwait. . . The Emir is in Saudi Arabia and is in direct contact with me. . . We are working very closely with the Saudis at the highest level. I think U.S. intervention at this stage is both paramount and important. . . We don't stand a chance if we don't get aid from our friends. The country. . . is already under complete occupation."

Remarkable Responses

The Kuwaiti envoy's dramatic press conference took place before most Americans were even aware of the invasion. It touched off a period of sustained American public attention to the Middle East. The crisis was remarkable for how rapidly President George Bush reacted to Kuwait's plea, backed up by America's key Arab allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and eventually the United Nations. It also was remarkable for the laser-like intensity with which American television networks focused on the dispute, sending media star anchormen to Cairo, Riyadh, Amman and Baghdad, and showing footage of the fighting and Iraqi occupation surreptitiously filmed and smuggled out of Kuwait by escaping foreigners.

The self-possessed visage of Kuwait's nattily dressed ambassador has become instantly recognizable to the American public since then. At first he appeared alone on interview programs. Then sometimes television news shows featured consecutive interviews with Sheikh Saud and his equally articulate Iraqi opposite number, Ambassador Mohamad Sadiq Al Mashat. Finally, on Aug. 13, thw Kuwaiti and Iraqi envoys engaged in a sharp on-camera debate.

"Ambassador Mashat," said Ambassador Al Sabah during a joint appearance on ABC's "Nightline" with Ted Koppel, "I do have respect for you as a person and I've always had and always will. But, quite frankly, I do not have any respect for the views you have expressed. You are the last person to talk about values and Arab solidarity in the Arab world. You have disrupted. . . the Arab world and split it in half. Is this the way you want to conduct your future Arab solidarity?. . . Let my people be free. Get out of my country. . . Let all the foreigners get out. Let the Americans get out. You still hold Americans in Kuwait. You still hold Americans in Baghdad."

In the weeks after the invasion, Ambassador Al Sabah was in regular telephone contact with Kuwait's ruler, Emir Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah, and with American officials. He also accompanied Kuwait's foreign minister on a series of visits to officials in Washington and made himself available not only to the U.S. media but to other journalists including the Kuwait news agency, suddenly functioning without a headquarters in Kuwait, but still a major source of news throughout the Middle East.

Being a member of Kuwait's ruling Al Sabah family, with 21 years of experience in Kuwait's foreign ministry, Sheikh Saud did not hesitate to speak out forcefully and sometimes without the constraints a less well placed diplomat might have felt. Besides being fluent in English, he is a British-trained lawyer whose first foreign ministry appointment was in 1969, as Kuwait's representative to the Conference on the Law of Treaties.

From 1969 to 1973 he served as Kuwait's representative to the Seabed Committee of the United Nations, becoming vice chairman of the committee, and in 1974 and 1975 he was vice chairman of the Kuwait delegation to the Conference on the Law of the Sea, again becoming vice chairman of the conference as well.

From 1975 to 1980, Sheikh Saud was Kuwaiti ambassador to Great Britain, as well as non-resident ambassador to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Since coming to the U.S. in 1981, he also has been non-resident Kuwaiti ambassador to Canada and Venezuela.

Though the questions he has been asked by the media since the invasion were sometimes alarmist, Ambassador Al Sabah's calm and deliberate answers have drawn a clear picture of his country's evolving policy. This has been particularly true since he and his government became more assured that neither the U.S. nor Kuwait's Arab allies considered the Iraqi occupation of his country a fait accompli, as many observers had called it during the first week after the invasion.

"It must be clearly understood that Saddam Hussein's long-term intentions. . . are to dominate the whole area," Sheikh Saud told interviewers on ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" Aug. 5. "This is the first stage of his plans, and unless he's checked and stopped here, we can see an evolving change in the situation. . He can only understand force. . . What we're concerned about is the survival of our country and our sovereignty."

Four days later, referring to Iraq's ambassadors in Washington and at the U.N., an American public relations firm the Iraqi Embassy had engaged only weeks before the invasion, and to U.S. business and ethnic organizations established with Iraqi Embassy encouragement over the past four years, Ambassador Al Sabah told CNN interviewer Bernard Shaw:

"Certain Iraqi ambassadors. . . and their agents throughout the U.S. . . are trying to insult the intelligence of the American people. . . and trying to bring to the American people falsehoods and lies. . . They promised not to invade. That's the first example. They promised it to the Egyptian president. They promised it to the Jordanian king. They promised it to the United States through your ambassador in Baghdad. . .

"This is deception in international relations. And at the time we took their word for it and that's where we are now. . . We are specifically grateful for the leadership of the United States in rallying behind it the whole world and getting a unanimous decision by the Security Council. . . condemning the Iraqi decision to annex Kuwait. We are also grateful for the role of our brothers in Saudi Arabia and all the civilized countries who realize that such activities should be regarded as unlawful and should be stopped. . .

"Our desire is to get a peaceful, amicable solution to this problem. We don't want to see any bloodshed if we can avoid it. . . American lives are as valuable as our lives. . . We want to give peace a chance if peace is possible. . . But this man has got to be stopped."

The "Provisional Government"

In subsequent interviews, Ambassador Al Sabah was caustic not only about Iraq, but about the "provisional government" it installed immediately after the invasion. "This revolutionary regime is no more than Iraqi military people. . . planted inside the country," he told interviewer John McLaughlin in an NBC special report on Aug. 13.

"Atrocities are being committed by the occupying powers inside Kuwait against civilians, and there is indiscriminate shooting of people inside Kuwait, whether Kuwaitis or nationals of countries who have supported Kuwait. . . The amount they were able to loot from the Central Bank of Kuwait, together with other Kuwaiti banks at that time, is in the region of $5 billion. . . Because. . . they have these funds. . . it is going to take a while for them to feel the pinch of the sanctions that are taking place. . . It buys them five months if the regime is going to spend that money for the people. But this regime is not going to transfer it to Swiss bank accounts for the regime and for their individual ends."

Declaring that his country has some 300,000 Palestinian residents, Ambassador Al Sabah was careful, in answers to questions about Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat's reluctance to condemn Saddam Hussein, to distinguish between the Palestinians and their leadership.

"From the information we've got, the Palestinian people in Kuwait, many of them, went and volunteered through the blood banks of Kuwait. And they also have participated in the demonstrations by Kuwaitis against the occupation. So we're not talking about the Palestinians here. We're talking about the leadership of the Palestinians, which is completely damaging the reputation of the Palestinian people. . . "

Questioned by American journalists about the economic roots of Iraq's dispute with Kuwait, Sheikh Saud is less diplomatic. "We gave them over $12 billion. [In addition] we gave them all the equipment they needed. . . After the war, when we expanded our production of oil in order to give the Iraqis more funds and more assistance, they came back and said, "You're producing too much'. . .

"Our desire is to get a peaceful, amicable solution to this problem."

"We never asked them to repay the debt and we've never regarded what we have paid to the Iraqis or contributed to their war effort as a debt. It was our participation in the defense of Iraq. Let [Saddam Hussein] produce a document or any conversation that we had with him regarding repayment of the funds we gave him. We've never termed them as debts or loans. We termed them our contribution to their war efforts."

As for Kuwait's present position vis a vis Iraq, the Kuwait envoy explained: "We went to the summit conference and we said we are willing to negotiate, but not negotiate under occupation. . . Let him get out of Kuwait. Let them restore the legitimate government of Kuwait. Then we can negotiate."

Questioned by Koppel on ABC's "Nightline" concerning Saddam Hussein's proposal that all U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for troop withdrawals in the Middle East be enforced, the Kuwaiti envoy noted curtly:

"The Iraqi initiative, if you look at it in its totality. . . talks about the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories, withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon. . . And he says, 'then and only then will we address ourselves to the problem of Kuwait.' It doesn't talk about withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait."

Many journalists have questioned the Kuwaiti envoy closely about Iraq's claim to hegemony over Kuwait. Sheikh Saud repeated Kuwait's case for independence on CNN's "Crossfire" to hosts Michael Kinsley and Pat Buchanan on Aug. 16.

"In 1913, the British and the Turks [the Ottoman Empire] signed a treaty whereby they defined explicitly the borders of Kuwait under British control. In 1932, our government in Kuwait, with the Iraqi government, signed a treaty confirming and affirming the 1913 treaty. After independence in 1961, Iraq revoked that treaty and wanted to annex Kuwait. All the forces came in to defend Kuwait. Afterwards [Iraq] recognized Kuwait in 1962. Their deputy prime minister. . . came to Kuwait [and] signed with us a 1963 treaty identifying our borders and acknowledging the sovereignty of Kuwait."

A Full Day-And-Nighttime Schedule

With af full daytime schedule, and spending much of the night on the telephone with officials in his government's temporary location in Saudi Arabia, nine hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, Ambassador Al Sabah has had little sleep or time away from his embassy. Fortunately, the embassy residence, which he shares with his wife, Shaikha Awatif S. Al Sabah, three sons and two daughters, is adjacent to the embassy chancery in northwest Washington. The White House and State Department are less than two miles away.

This convenient location is fortunate because Ambassador Al Sabah's ordeal seems far from over. Increasingly, Americans are asking him whether President Bush, who drew "a line in the sand" to make it clear that the U.S. would fight at Saudi Arabia's side in case of an Iraqi invasion, might move that line forward and use military rather than economic means to roll back the Iraqi army from Kuwait.

In addressing all questions about U.S.-Kuwait relations, however, Ambassador Sabah is a diplomat first, and a gracious one at that:

"Thank you, President Bush," he said on CNN's "Crossfire" program. "Thank you, the American people and the United States. . . We're hoping that we can resolve this amicably and peacefully. We don't want to see any further bloodshed on the part of American boys or any multinational forces in the area or Kuwait nationals and civilians inside the country."

In answer to similar questions Aug. 26 on CNN's "Newsmaker Sunday" program, Ambassador Al Sabah used virtually the same words to express a hope fervently shared by his American audiences as well as his Middle Eastern neighbors: "We don't want bloodshed. If we can get the Iraqis out without further bloodshed and misery, we are for it."

Richard H. Curtiss is chief editor of the monthly Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.