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Americans Keep Foot in the Gulf with Kuwait Pact

In the flurry over UN inspections of Baghdad's nuclear programme and new US threats to use force against Iraq, a deal providing for a long-term US presence in Kuwait has been signed in Washington. Under the deal, virtually unnoticed by the Western media, the US has continued access to Kuwaiti airfields and ports and is allowed to stockpile hundreds of tanks and military supplies. The pact has angered Iran, which opposes any foreign presence in the region. •

Mohammed Aslam writes from Dubai
UNEXPECTEDLY strong opposition by Iran to a United States-Kuwalt military co-operation agreement seems to have complicated the search for a lopg-term security mechanism for the oil-rich Gulf region.
The Iranian government, despite Its neutral position during the gulf crisis triggered by last year's Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, has all along opposed any arrangement involving external — especially US — military presence In the region.
It was vehemently opposed to Kuwaiti plans revealed in August to allow British and US bases to deter any new threat from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
Iranian reaction to the formal Kuwalt-US agreement signed on September 19 in Washington was swift and sharp, even though the deal does not provide for any permanent bases.
The 10-year US-Kuwait pact allows the US to keep troops in Kuwait longer than originally planned. Some 1,500 soldiers will remain, instead of the total withdrawal proposed * earlier.
The pact also allows for joint training and military exercises with Kuwaiti armed forces and the stockpile of a division of US tanks and other military material for use in an emergency. Visits by US warplanes and ships to Kuwaiti facilities are authorised.
Talks are still to be held to determine exactly what weaponry and supplies will be
stored, and there Is also speculation whether they will be looked after by US servicemen. Tanks and other equipment will obviously have, to be maintained on a regular basis to ensure combat preparedness.
Washington has said similar arranoements are Heino ncon-
tiated with other members of the six-state Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). active participants in the US-led coalition that defeated Iraq and liberated Kuwait on February 27. The GCC members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.
While Kuwait has been anxious to get itself under the Western defence umbrella, and its concern has been recognised by all as a special case, the other member-states are opposed to any foreign bases or ground military presence on their soil.
Iran remains firmly against a foreign role in Gulf security, especially when Iran itself is not involved. Acting on the orders of the Supreme Security Council, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned Kuwait's charge d'affaires in Tehran to demand an explanation of the pact.
The signing has revived aqtl-US rhetoric in Iranian government circles and the media — a departure from the softer attitude towards the West of recent months.
One Perstan-language newspaper dubbed Washington "the number one enemy of the Islamic revolution." Another said the pact "is drawn up unilaterally to suit the interest of Washington and disgraces the Kuwaiti government as a powerless subservient."'
And President Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose moderate
stance has virtually transformed Iranian foreign policy despite occasional outbursts of conservative thinking, used the 11 th anniversary of the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war to criticise the US.
The region." he was quoted as saying. "Is not calm and those diabolic forces which were present in the scene against us in the last stages of the war are now trying to strengthen their hold in the region."
In the final stages of the eight-year conflict that ended August 1988, the US escorted oil tankers to protect against Iranian attacks tn the Gulf.
Kuwait had placed half Ils tanker fleet under the US flag. The American protection foiled the Iranian strategy to choke the Gulf and make shipping impossible.
It was presumed to have contributed directly to the abrupt end of the war when Iran accepted the UN ceasefire resolution.
American and other Western navies arc once again at the centre of the security
framework being pul together, a plan that Involve s few foreign ground forces tn the area.
Western warships have remained In the vital waterway, through which the bulk of the world s crude oil pua s. fur nearly four decades and they may now be used lo underpin the security arrangements.
Al their latest meeting in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah, the GCC foreign ministers welcomed improved relations with Iran and expressed hope for a new phase of co-operation.
The Damascus Declaration signed in March by the GCC states and Egypt and Syria had al one stage emerged as the basis of just such an arrangement. but Kuwait’s special ■ needs and 'the issues of cost and composition of a joint % force have since diluted that^ agreement.
Iran had welcomed the exclusion of Western states from the pact, but nevertheless rejected it as impractical without a role being assigned to Tehran.
There is near consensus among the region's Arab states, including Kuwait, that realistically any arrangement needs the blessing of Iran. But there is little agreement on the nature of Iran's potential role. If that role is largely political, it Is not likely to satisfy Theran.
— GEMINI NEWS
MOHAMMED ASLAM Is on the staff of the KhaleeJ Times, DubaL