PALESTINIANS APOLOGIZE TO KUWAITIS FOR SUPPORTING SADDAM'S 1990 INVASION

Kuwaitis Get Apology From Palestinians
KUWAIT CITY - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Kuwaitis on Sunday for Palestinian support of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the 1990-91 Gulf War, his latest gesture to mend fences with Arab nations offended by the late Yasser Arafat over the years.

Kuwaitis had mixed feelings ahead of Abbas' visit, many holding a grudge against Palestinian support for Saddam during the Gulf War. But on his arrival Sunday, Abbas provided a long-awaited apology. Responding to a question, he said: "Yes, we apologize for what we have done."

Kuwait's prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, had said an apology was not needed and the matter of the Palestinian leadership's support for Saddam "has been closed."

A day earlier, however, a group of lawmakers said in a statement that they rejected the visit before the Palestine Liberation Organization "offers an official apology to the Kuwaiti people for the sin it committed against Kuwait." On Sunday, one of the lawmakers, Mussalam al-Barrak, said the apology was too brief and "simple."

"We want an official apology in an official statement," he told reporters. Another lawmaker, Ahmed al-Saadoun said with an apology or without, "Kuwaitis don't want to see the Palestinian leadership in Kuwait." But Mohammed al-Saqr, who heads Parliament's foreign affairs panel, praised the apology in a statement, saying a "new page in relations was now being opened."

As PLO leader, Arafat supported Iraq in its 1990 invasion of this oil-rich country and opposed the subsequent U.S.-led Gulf War that liberated it. He never visited Kuwait afterward.