THE MIDEAST CRISIS : U.S. Citizen, 5, Syrian Parents Escape Kuwait : Family: A Ventura couple is told that their Texas-born nephew’s passport was not checked by Iraqi officials.

Ventura residents Moustapha Abou-Samra and his wife, Jonie, no longer have to worry about the fate of their relatives who were stranded in Kuwait. They received word that their 5-year-old nephew Samir Ariad, a U.S. citizen, has crossed the Syrian border out of Iraq, along with his Syrian parents, brother and sister.

Although most of the Ariad family are citizens of Syria, they feared for the safety of their youngest boy, who was born in Texas during one of the family’s frequent visits to relatives in the United States. Samir had only a U.S. passport, and his father was unsuccessful in obtaining Syrian identification for him in the wake of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

Last week the Abou-Samras learned that the Ariads had to leave behind their three-story home, their valuable art collection and their two maids. But they were no longer trapped in Kuwait.

On Saturday, as they prepared for a family outing to Dodger Stadium, the Abou-Samras recalled the ordeal of Moustapha’s sister, Nadia, her husband Nassib and their three children. The details were recounted during a lengthy phone call from Damascus, Syria, the night before.

When the occupation started, the Abou-Samras said, Nassib Ariad called the Syrian and Swiss embassies for help. Ariad is a Middle Eastern representative for Nestle, the Swiss multinational company, and was invited to leave Kuwait with a Swiss contingent that had been promised immunity.

In less than an hour, the Ariad family packed their car with food and water, uncertain how much time they would have to spend on the road. The trip from Kuwait city to Baghdad took four days. In Baghdad, Iraqi officials told the Swiss contingent it could face problems crossing the border, Jonie Abou-Samra said, so the Ariads decided to break off from the caravan and travel on their own.

Amid the chaos at the Syrian border caused by thousands trying to flee Iraq, customs officials failed to notice the child Nadia Ariad was holding in her arms was a U.S. citizen, and the family was allowed to leave Iraq, Moustapha Abou-Samra said.

Now the Ariads are free to resume their summer ritual of visiting Ventura and hope eventually to settle in the United States.

“The kids love soccer,” said Jonie, referring to Samir and his brother Mazen, 14, and sister Meissa, 12. “When they were here last July, the watched the World Cup on the Spanish-language television.”

And they went sailing and horseback riding with the Abou-Samras.

“They are very much like Americans, they go to American schools, Mazen plays soccer, Meissa studies ballet, and Samir is very funny.”

The Abou-Samra residence sits atop a hillside in eastern Ventura, overlooking the ocean, and like the family itself it combines Arab influences with classic Americana. A grand piano is next to a tall Arab water pipe. A watercolor painting of a seaside California bungalow hangs next to an ancient print of Persians dancing near a river.

Abou-Samra’s five children, ages 13 to 6, play in the living room: The girls all resemble their sandy blond, blue-eyed mother; the boys have dark eyes and curly hair like their father.

Abou-Samra, who came to the United States in 1972 as a graduate student, married and eventually became a U.S. citizen 10 years ago. He supports U.S. Middle Eastern policy emphatically and he hopes for a peaceful solution to the Persian Gulf crisis, but fears war might break out.

“Our family is out of danger and that’s a big relief,” said Abou-Samra, a neurosurgeon who works at a local hospital. “Now I have only two concerns: One, that people in the United States understand Arab-Americans are like any other Americans, with the same hopes, dreams and patriotism. Two, that people here realize that the families in the Middle East are usually happy, peace-loving people. What’s going on now was caused by Saddam Hussein and his government--not by the ordinary people.”