(MENAFN- Arab Times) KUWAIT/IRAQ BORDER March 19 (RTRS): A Kuwaiti border security official led journalists on a tour of the country's border area with Iraq on Sunday as the Gulf state attempts to reassure its citizens that the boundary with Iraq is secure. Reports that Mohammed Emwazi known as 'Jihadi John' and believed to be Islamic State's most notorious executioner was born on their soil have stirred deep unease among Kuwaitis about the vulnerability of their country to wars in nearby Iraq and Syria in which some of their Arab allies have become combatants.
Security officials acknowledge that youths from Gulf Arab states have trekked in their hundreds to fight for the Islamic State (IS) a sign of the potency of the militant group's declaration of a caliphate. 'We have not noticed any (security unrest) nor we had any information suggesting so. It is in fact the opposite there is complete calm' said General Sheikh Mohammed Al-Youssef Al-Sabbah Border Security Assistant for Kuwait's Interior Ministry as he showed reporters the border zone. 'Last summer I went to the American- Mexican border. We are ahead of them with the devices we have the only thing that makes them special is the drones they have' he added.
The US treasury last year described its ally Kuwait as an 'epicentre of fund-raising for terrorist groups in Syria.' Kuwaiti financiers especially those following the strict Saudi-style Islam which some say has been on the rise in the country sent funds openly to hardline factions for years. Officials and an international watchdog say the state has now tightened curbs on such financing but Western concern lingers.
Political analyst Sami Al-Farraj told Reuters that Kuwait's financial power alongside it's location and diplomatic role tied the county to the crisis sweeping Iraq and Syria. 'Kuwait's active and diplomatic role threatens those who do not want security in the region.
This is the first thing. The second issue is Kuwait's economic capabilities as some say that the DAESH [IS] is supported by the intelligence agencies of an Arab state or Gulf states and by this they often refer to countries that have the financial ability to support these kind of things that includes Kuwait Saudi Arabia the UAE Qatar etc.
The third issue is of course the geographical location which makes Kuwait very close to these events' said Farraj. The masked 'Jihadi John' killer who fronted IS beheading videos was identified in February as Mohammed Emwazi who was born in Kuwait before moving to Britain at the age of six. The identification of Emwazi as the masked man wielding a knife over Western hostages gives potential recruits a high profile personality with whom to identify and Kuwait's role supporting the US-led fight against IS only increases the appeal for those who feel alienated at home. People within the government and beyond are quick to point out that Emwazi appears to have been radicalised in Britain.
Radicalised
But he is not the first high profile anti- Western militant from Kuwait: Bin Laden's al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was a citizen the architect of the 9/11 attacks Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is believed by many to have been born there as was top al-Qaeda commander in Syria Muhsin al-Fadhli. 'It is of no surprise that some leaders of al-Qaeda have come out of Kuwait such as Sulaiman Abu Ghaith and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed who was one of the people who planned the September 11 attacks Muhsin Al-Fadhli the leader of Khorasan group who was killed.
The first two were arrested in the United States and the third has been killed and the fourth one is Mohammed Emwazi from Daesh [IS]. So what does all that mean it means that the (Kuwait) climate is subjected to these attacks' said Farraj. Government officials say Kuwait has provided intelligence funding and the use of airfields for attacks by some members of a Western-Arab coalition fighting IS. Kuwaiti allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have gone further actually taking part in air raids using their own airfields.
Maj. Gen. Robert S. Williams the chief of military cooperation at the US embassy in Kuwait told reporters that the two countries shared a good relationship and that he was encouraged by the security in place along the Iraq border. 'My job at the US embassy is to understand and foster good relationships with our Kuwaiti hosts and I can tell you that the US and the Kuwaiti relationship is second to none it's fantastic.
But what I see here along the border is fantastic cooperation coordination between two professional operations with the Kuwaitis and the Iraqis' said Williams. Scarred by Iraq's 1990-91 occupation and by a ringside seat at the 1980-88 Iran- Iraq war the state of 3.5 million only 1.2 million of them Kuwaiti is fixated on stability and survival and well aware of its dependence on outside powers.
An oil and investment power but a strategic minnow Kuwait is hemmed in by Saudi Arabia Iran and Iraq three big neighbours central to the security of the energy-rich region. 'We are surrounded by three big states: Iraq Saudi Arabia and Iran. What targets these countries targets us too. As I speak about Iraq I speak about Saudi Arabia and Iran. Unity in Iraq is one of the main interests for Kuwait. My take as an independent political analyst is the same as that of a Kuwaiti official or even the people of Kuwait. We do not wish to have a sectarian conflict on how the Iraqi state should be managed because this may lead to a regional risk that threatens all of us the Arabs the Muslim Sunnis and also even Iran' he said.
The country normally strives to adopt a conciliatory approach in foreign affairs but is a willing supporter of US-backed efforts to fight IS. The threat to Kuwaiti stability may come as much from within as from without security officials worry pointing to IS' ability to exploit sectarian and tribal fault lines in Arab society and its ambition to topple Gulf ruling dynasties. The struggle for ideas and power at stake in the war against IS is vented in rare full view here where pluralistic traditions include a lively parliament outspoken press and a busy intellectual life
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