the official kuwaiti delegation withdrew, to preserve its safety, from the opening ceremony of the ‘gulf 25’ soccer tournament held in the city of basra, following chaos as a result of the entry of uninvited parties to the “vip” area. the delegation had arrived at the stadium, headed by the representative of his highness the amir and chairman of the kuwaiti olympic committee, sheikh fahad al-nasser al-sabah, accompanied by the iraqi minister of sports ahmad almubarqa.
next, the iraqi football association expressed its deep regret that some organizational matters had gone out of their proper framework at the opening ceremonies which included the head of the delegation, the president of the kuwait football association, and members of the board of directors.
there was deep regret because of the scenes of the mass stampede that occurred inside the main hall, stressing that the iraqi federation, as well as those in charge of organizing the tournament, will take into account the need to avoid what happened to ensure that the organizational process appears happens in a smooth way. the iraqi sources stressed that what happened will not affect the strength of the relationship between iraq and kuwait, especially at the sports level, especially since kuwait was one of the strongest supporters of the tournament in basra.
according to my understanding, a kuwaiti does not have a solution to the “love and hate” dilemma between kuwait and iraq, whether as a result of saddam’s invasion of kuwait, and the security events and setbacks that preceded it, or the actions and attacks that took place after the liberation that cannot be listed.
there is no formula that can be followed. the return of relations to normal, a situation that has not happened before, as long as there is some “crazy” person out there who believes that kuwait is part of iraq and a similar lunatic person on the other side who believes that kuwait can ignore the situation in iraq, continue to be hostile to it, and not be indifferent to its suffering.
therefore, the “wise people” on both sides have no choice but to continue, calmly and deliberately, to bridge the gap of differences between the two countries, or rather to bridge the gap of doubts, end historical myths, support moderate parties and personalities, and involve them in various activities, and increase trade exchange between the two countries, and benefit from the wealth of iraq, invest in joint projects, even if they are not profitable, as long as they contribute to strengthening the relationship between the two countries and peoples by strengthening their interests.
what happened at the opening ceremony of the 25th soccer extravaganza happened and is happening similarly, and more of it on more than one similar occasion, and what happened on the kuwaiti side, after an apology for what happened was issued by more than one party, and the minister of interior pledged not to repeat the chaos. we are also concerned more than any other party, other than the host country, with the success of this tournament and the achievement of its desired fraternal goals.
a final note: historically, we used to send our elite diplomats, former ministers, and people with expertise, to represent us in the golden belt countries, in which the majority of diplomats yearn to work, such as the major european countries, britain and america, and two arab countries.
for one reason or another, we have not given enough importance, since the liberation until today, to the kind of person who represents us in iraq, the most sensitive country for us, with all due respect to our ambassador there. on this occasion, i recall the quality of our late ambassador, ahmad abdulaziz al-jassem, who was active and unique in his complex relations with all parties in the country in which he was ambassador.