Kuwait Says U.S. Contributing to Israeli Attacks 
Mon Apr 1,11:27 AM ET 
By Ashraf Fouad 

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's elected parliament, in a rare criticism of the country's close ally the United States, Monday urged Washington to end its "contribution" to Israeli aggression in the Middle East. 

      
The parliament urged Washington to show fairness when dealing with the Israelis and Palestinians. 

In a statement sent to Reuters, the parliament, the only such elected Gulf Arab assembly, called on the United States "to adopt a policy based on rights, justice and international charters and (U.N.) resolutions instead of its current policy which contributes to the continuation of the Israeli aggression." 

Kuwait's Islamist groups had earlier issued a stronger statement, urging Arabs to withdraw their collective peace offer to Israel announced at an Arab summit in Beirut Thursday. 

The influential groups said Arabs must aid Palestinians in "their Jihad -- the only option before the nation to confront repeated Zionist aggression." 

Israel and the Palestinians appeared closer this week to all-out war than at any time since the start of a Palestinian uprising against occupation in September 2000. 

Recent deadly Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli towns and cities prompted the Jewish state's harshest military operation to date. Tanks and troops Friday took over most of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s offices in the West Bank. 

Thousands of Kuwaitis took to the streets Saturday in a show of support for the Palestinians. But there were also rare chants against Israel's ally the United States, which led the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) that ended seven-months of Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. 

Despite a rift with Arafat for appearing to side with Iraq during the Gulf crisis, Kuwait has come out strongly against the Israeli operation, describing it as an insult to all Arabs. 

Information Minister Sheikh Ahamad al-Fahd al-Sabah also vowed full support for Arafat in a telephone conversation with the Palestinian leader. 

Kuwait's Islamists, who are not against close ties with Washington and the presence of U.S. forces in the oil-rich state, told Arab states to cut ties with Israel. 

"Expose the contradiction in American policy which considers Israeli terrorism as legitimate struggle and ignores the massacres of Palestinians," their statement said. 

Kuwait, home to 400,000 Palestinians prior to the 1990 Iraqi invasion and the birthplace of Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) movement, has no links with Israel. It said it would be the last Arab state to normalize ties with Israel if comprehensive peace was reached. 

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