Gulf Crisis Threatens Asian Games

Malaysia has voted to oppose any attempt to bar Iraq from the Asian Games, South Korea will avoid the issue and China is still mulling its decision, officials said today.

Several Arab countries have threatened to boycott the games if Iraq competes, an official of the Olympic Council of Asia said last week.

But Hamzah Abu Samah, president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia, said politics should not be allowed to interfere with the games.

The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait.

Last week, the 38 OCA members were asked to vote on extending the U.N. sanctions to include the Sept. 22-Oct. 7 Asian Games. The vote is to be completed by Thursday.

South Korean sports officials said their country will abstain from voting, although Seoul is observing the U.N. sanctions.

Chinese organizers have been haggling over which team to recognize if two Kuwaiti teams attend, the one representing the Iraqi-installed government or one representing the Saudi Arabia-based government in exile.

Many Kuwaiti athletes were out of the country at the time of the invasion and the government-in-exile’s ability to field and fund a team is in doubt.

The government-in-exile also did not submit a final list of participants by an Aug. 22 deadline, but it did send a telex from Saudi Arabia recently, indicating it would enter five events.

By today, China said it had received entry lists from 31 countries totaling 4,306 athletes. Yemen, Palestine and Kuwait are among the seven countries or regions that have yet to submit their lists.