Kuwait Bars Hostage-Prisoner Swap

The Kuwaiti government said Monday that it will reject any suggestion that it release prisoners in Kuwaiti jails in exchange for American hostages in Lebanon.

Asked at a news conference about Kuwait’s position after the latest kidnapings in Beirut, Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, told a news conference that the United States has made no request to Kuwait for the release of prisoners.

“We would reject any such request because this affair is a Kuwaiti affair only,” Sabah said.

“I reaffirm again that there is no relation between these criminals who have committed crimes against Kuwait and its peoples and the kidnapers of Americans in Beirut,” he said.

There have been reports circulating in Lebanon that an emissary, as yet unidentified, traveled to Kuwait from Beirut with a proposal for a swap of all Western hostages in Lebanon for the prisoners held in Kuwait.

One diplomat in Kuwait said there was speculation that Saturday’s kidnaping of three American professors and an Indian colleague in West Beirut was designed to wreck the negotiations for a general release of prisoners.

The 17 men in Kuwaiti jails, mostly Iraqis and Lebanese, are believed to be allied with Iran and opposed to the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They were convicted of participation in the December, 1983, car-bomb attacks against the French and the U.S. embassies here, as well as a number of Kuwaiti installations.

Three of those convicted were sentenced to death, but the executions were never carried out, reportedly after the intervention of the United States, which feared for the safety of U.S. hostages.

Tied to Iraqi Group

The 17 prisoners are believed to belong to Al Daawa, an underground Iraqi terrorist group. However, responsibility for the attacks on the embassies was claimed by Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a shadowy group believed to have close ties to Iran.

Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for a car-bomb attack in May, 1985, that injured the emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah.

Diplomats believe that the attack on the emir stiffened Kuwait’s resolve in the hostage debate to the point where the Kuwaitis are unlikely to make any concessions.

There has been a rash of attacks against Kuwait in the last week, responsibility for which was claimed by a group in Beirut calling itself “the Revolutionary Organization--Forces of the Prophet Mohammed in Kuwait.”

In threatening Kuwait, the group has said it opposes the holding of a conference of the heads of state of Muslim nations, which opened as planned Monday night.