Kuwait’s Army mobilized in Bobian Island to “protect Mubarak Port”

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Kuwait’s Defense Ministry has taken huge security precautions, represented by the mobilization of a military force in Bobian Island, close to the end of Iraq’s Shatt al-Arab Waterway close to southern Iraq’s Basra Province, to protect its so-called Grand Mubarak Port, the Kuwaiti al-Watan Newspaper reported on Wednesday.   “The Kuwaiti Defense Ministry has taken very huge security precautions in the Grand Mubarak Port, since the moment of the beginning of its construction,” the newspaper stressed, pointing out to the presence of “a military force in Bobian island, including Military Police of ‘Amoun Defense Orgnanization,’ the Intelligence, Air Defense, 35 th Companies, the 6 th Brigade and the Naval Force,” in the area.   Al-Watan quoted a Kuwaiti military source as saying that “the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense had striven to secure the Port in the ground, sea and air, since the beginning of its construction,” adding that “such measure had been followed by a number of states, before the beginning of any vital project, close to the borders of other states,” stressing that “the said force had not noted any security violation for the Port and its surrounding areas.”   In a related development, al-Watan quoted the British Ambassador to Kuwait, Frank Baker, to have stated that “Kuwait has the right to implement and build the Port, stemming from its full legitimacy and sovereignty on its territories.”   The Ambassador told a news conference in Kuwait that “the thing that effects the Iraqi side towards the project is not logical, because the port is being built inside Kuwaiti territories,” confirming “necessity to settle the differences between both sides through direct negotiations and away from escalation of those of conflicts.”   Kuwait had announced on April 6 th last, the beginning of building the Grand Mubarak Port, one year after Iraq’s announcement to build its Grand Faw Port in the Gulf.   Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and its Development Minister, Ahmed al-Fahad, had stated that the “project, it had agreed upon for its construction with the South-Korean Hyundai Company, shall be ‘friend for the environment’ pointing out that it comprises “great motives, achieving the hopes and ambitions of the Kuwaiti people, who had always looked forward towards building a port in that strategic and vital position, making Kuwait a financial and commercial center on both Regional and International levels.”   SKH (TF) 705