The Interior Ministry: The Minister's Positives and Rationality

I pause, reflecting on the statements of First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousif Al-Sabah, and recalling a meeting held in Washington with my late father, Sheikh Yousif Al-Sabah, during one of his visits to the American capital. My observations regarding the conversation with my late father confirmed my certainty about his realism and the rationality of his analysis, as well as his disagreement with indications I had mentioned regarding the large volume of domestic interests occupying Kuwait. My father was a reader and a man of understanding. From my reading of the Minister’s statements, especially his most recent ones as published in Al-Jarida newspaper in its issue dated Monday, July 27, 2026, I found much content that my father had been convinced of. Among its most prominent lines was the continuity of dialogue with Iraq; there is no escape from constant meetings coupled with the determination to ensure the success of their positive aspects. The First Deputy Prime Minister’s convictions carry much of my father’s hopes for continuing dialogue, deepening trust between the two countries, avoiding conflicts, rejecting incitement, and rising above rumors. All of this describes the approach to steering the political path that Kuwait believes in in its dealings with neighborhood files, particularly its dialogues with Baghdad.

The First Deputy Prime Minister adds in the “document of wisdom” he desires as a prescription for managing the climate of relations. I can note that his interview in the newspaper highlights his concerns about encroachments on the logic of rationality, which leads to undermining the climate of trust and losing reciprocal respect. He is deeply worried about rumors and exaggerations. His most important advice, which dominated that meeting, was to find immunity to reject exaggerations regarding the nature of what the two countries agree upon. Without a doubt, the First Deputy Prime Minister wants all aspects of the relationship map between the two countries to be completed. This map is based on official and popular foundations that both sides find comfortable. The First Deputy Prime Minister volunteers to emphasize that both sides will not allow fitna (sedition) to approach the interests of the two countries, and that they will fight anyone who harbors ill will toward them. He affirms the importance of this truth in this commentary.

We continue to follow this constructive content in the relations between the two countries. We hope that his engagement does not remain confined to the Basra region and its circles, but rather that the hope shared by both peoples is for mutual benefits to rise in all possible fields, through the determination of both leaderships to reach the highest rank on the ladder of shared interests. Relations still require the removal of pollutants created by the dictatorship led by Saddam Hussein, whom history has placed at the top of the wanted list for retribution from Iraq’s flawed historical record left by the Saddam Hussein regime.

I believe the First Deputy Prime Minister’s activities extend beyond the Basra region. He possesses vitality along with positive fitness prescriptions to attend to all aspects of the relations file, especially in moving beyond the Basra region into the northern space. We are aware of the scale of challenges facing the Iraqi government, whose Prime Minister, Ali Fadhil Al-Obaidi, visited Washington on July 13, 2026, to overcome some obstacles that the Iraqi government is still addressing gradually and in coordination with United States efforts. There are opportunities that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, especially Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, can contribute to utilizing, thereby achieving a Gulf-Iraqi partnership that contributes to building Iraq’s future, where its major interests target development and commercial integration with Gulf states, Turkey, and Syria.

Iraq’s relations with Iran retain dimensions of security interdependence between the two countries. The situation in Iraq remains a subject that preoccupies us in the Gulf, as well as others in Europe and America. Moreover, it preoccupies Syria and Turkey even more. Kuwait continues to monitor potential transformations within Iraq and their impact on the Basra region, as well as the First Deputy Prime Minister’s concerns, which he expressed without sensationalist journalism, affirming the determination to quell sedition and emphasizing the fight against anyone harboring ill will toward the two countries. We all commend the arduous effort exerted by the First Deputy Prime Minister to ensure the health and well-being of relations with Iraq, convinced that the remarkable development in relations will shine brightly in the future and move toward a stage dominated by reconciliation. These are gems in the substance of relations, and those who follow the First Deputy Prime Minister’s statements expect that the future will remain adorned with the meanings of these gems, illuminating this path. Personally, I see in the First Deputy Prime Minister and his orientations a kind of insistence on practical engagement to remove obstacles and pave the way for all possible solutions; he does not hesitate to address them under his personal supervision.

The situation in Iran remains, where the media of the Popular Mobilization Units has encroached upon the rationality of clerics and political practitioners. The PMF has delved into the details of Iran’s relations with world countries, especially the United States and GCC states, where the Iranian side acts to disrupt the unity of Gulf positions. There are dialogues with the Sultanate of Oman and a special tone with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while a noisy Iranian uproar has fallen upon Kuwait and Bahrain, with a milder, preserved sweetness for Qatar and the Sultanate. I do not expect Iranian pages to emerge carrying a tone of flirtation with Kuwait and Bahrain; rather, stings of vocabulary and bombs of raids continue to descend into the airspace of Kuwait and Bahrain. These are Iranian interventions and intrusions, all of which have the goal of interfering and influencing collective security, which the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior bears in its search for a remedy to repel this threat. Without any doubt, the First Deputy Prime Minister will not hesitate, regardless of the media and determination in Iran to disturb Kuwait.

The truth that does not escape Iran is that its primary concerns are maintaining the regime and keeping it away from risks that might change the situation in Iran. Iran’s priorities are the survival of the regime, maintaining its vitality, and occupying the region with its ambitions.

Abdullah Basharah