Kuwait And Mughniya

The tiny gulf nation is finding itself at the heart of the Arab-Iranian cold war.

When Imad Mughniya was killed, there was a polite public consensus among Lebanese politicians to treat him as a heroic resister to Israel. The pro-western Lebanese media and Mr. Seniora spoke of him in relatively good terms (to the outrage of their grass root)

The trend seemed pan-Arab at first, but a Kuwaiti official came up on Al-Jazeera and blasted Mughniya in terms not even the Israelis have used. The Kuwaitis, it seems, believed that Mughniya was involved in past plane highjacking and bombings that targeted their country. The feeling runs so high in Kuwait that when two Kuwaiti Shiaa MPs joined a commemoration for Mughniya, the Kuwaiti establishment and its media were outraged.

If one adds Kuwait’s newspapers, which constantly break tabloid-style, often unsubstantiated stories against Syria, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, one would understand the background against which the latest harassment of Kuwait and Kuwaitis is taking place in Lebanon.

Hezbollah supporters defiantly put a large graffiti of Mughniya on the wall of the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut (see picture), while an “anonymous” caller threatened to blast it with two missiles. At the same time, a high-ranking Iranian official accused “Arab Intelligence” of involvement in assassinating Mughniya. 

Buckle up. This is going to be quite a ride.