IRAQ/JORDAN/KUWAIT: JORDAN'S KING HUSSEIN ACCUSES IRAQ OF CONTEMPLATING NEW INVASION OF KUWAIT/ U.S MILITARY ARRIVES IN KUWAIT

Record ID: 649384

  • Title: IRAQ/JORDAN/KUWAIT: JORDAN'S KING HUSSEIN ACCUSES IRAQ OF CONTEMPLATING NEW INVASION OF KUWAIT/ U.S MILITARY ARRIVES IN KUWAIT
  • Date: 22nd August 1995
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 22, 1995) (RTV) GV/SV STREET SCENES (3 SHOTS) 1.35 CU RESIDENT AHMED RASHEED SAYING "SOMETHING IS NOT GOOD, WHAT CAN I TELL YOU, THERE IS NO SAFETY IN IRAQ." (ENGLISH) 1.47 GV STREET VENDORS 1.50
  • Embargoed: 6th September 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JORDANIAN DESERT, SOUTH OF AMMAN AND AMMAN, JORDAN/ BAGHDAD, IRAQ/ KUWAIT MILITARY AIRPORT, NEAR KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq Kuwait Jordan
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA53PWXV89AUPK0R6KEILPJB3P1
  • Story Text: More than 300 United States (U.S.) soldiers arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday (August 23), the first of a 1,400-strong force that will conduct exercises to deter any threat from former occupier Iraq.
    The remainder will come on six or seven more flights over the next 24 hours, a military spokesman said.
    The arrival coincides with increased U.S. pressure to further isolate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following the defection to Jordan of two of his most senior officials.
    U.S. officials say the manoeuvres are part of a long-running series that take place twice a year in Kuwait and have merely been advanced from October as a precaution following the defections.
    Also on Wednesday, U.S. marines continued joint military exercises with Jordanian forces in the Jordanian desert, south of Amman.
    The Pentagon has dubbed its reply to Iraqi movements "Vigilant Sentinel", an operation that includes sending forces and warships closer to the Gulf as well as the war games in Jordan and Kuwait.
    In Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqis denounced the build-up, calling it unnecessary and blaming Arab nations for the rising tension and continuing sanctions on Iraq. They said Arabs should work to ease Iraq's sanctions-related suffering.
    One resident, Ahmed Rasheed, said Iraq was not safe: "something is not good, what can I say, there is no safety in Iraq." Jordan's King Hussein accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday of contemplating a fresh invasion of Kuwait but said he would not close the border that forms Iraq's main link to the outside world.
    The king said in a televised speech that recent high-level defections had revealed the nature of the Baghdad government and that Iraqi leaders had discussed attacking both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
    Lieutenant General Hussein Kamel Hassan, Saddam's son-in-law and mastermind of his secret military programmes, defected to Jordan on August 8 with other members of the ruling circle. King Hussein gave them asylum.
    But he said Jordan would not close the border because it would cut off food and medicine: "This is a matter that we do not contemplate because we are with the people of Iraq as much as we can until the long night of their suffering ends." In Baghdad on Wednesday, Saddam Hussein met senior advisers, Iraq's state television reported.
    On Tuesday, a team of U.N. germ warfare experts arrived in Baghdad to verify data Iraq disclosed recently on its past biological activities.
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