Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper on Sunday called on Syria to pull its forces out of Lebanon, warning that the government in Damascus risked collapse if it continued to defy international pressure. The front-page editorial argued that the Syrian government bore a troubling resemblance to Saddam Hussein's former regime, particularly in what the paper called a failure to grasp global realities.
Syria had been under sustained pressure since the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1559 in early September 2004, which demanded the departure of all foreign troops from Lebanese territory.
The diplomatic friction between Kuwait and Syria grew from their sharply different positions on the 2003 US-British invasion of Iraq. Syria opposed the war and criticized Arab governments that backed it, Kuwait among them. The two countries had stood on the same side during the 1991 Gulf War, when Syria contributed forces to the coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
Despite the public criticism in the Kuwaiti press, official relations between the two governments remained functional. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had visited Kuwait for two days in June 2004, and the talks focused on deepening political and economic cooperation.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.