![image: [ Always 'The Iron Lady' to Kuwaitis ]](/olmedia/60000/images/_60433_Copy_of_thatcher2.jpg)
Although she was no longer Britain's Prime Minister at the time of the Gulf war, many Kuwaitis still see Margaret Thatcher as the driving force behind their liberation. Our correspondent, Frank Gardner is in Kuwait and he reports how the legend of the Iron Lady lives on in Arabia:
Stepping on to the tarmac at Kuwait's VIP guest terminal, Lady Thatcher was treated to a raucous welcome by the waiting international media. Dressed in her trademark blue suit, it was as if nothing had changed in the nearly eight years since she ceased to be Britain's Prime Minister.
Once the most powerful woman in the western world, she's here in Kuwait on a private visit and clearly pleased to be back.
"Quite naturally, as you will understand, Kuwait holds many, many memories for me, first of anxieties and then of triumph as she was freed again and I'm so glad to be almost on a homecoming journey...it's almost my second home. I'm very grateful to Kuwait for inviting me," she said.
Although her visit was arranged before the recent crisis in the Gulf, her arrival has coincided with Kuwait's Liberation Day. Seven years ago the country rejoiced as coalition troops freed Kuwait after seven long months of Iraqi occupation.
As a mark of respect, Kuwait's Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah, sent his own private jet to fly her here from London.
Over the next few days she'll be meeting the Emir and relatives of Kuwait's six hundred missing POWs from the days of the occupation. On Friday evening she's also due to step aboard the Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Nottingham.
There, her presence will doubtless remind the crew of a past conflict in the Gulf that Kuwait finds difficult to forget.
Kuwait marks 7th occupation anniversary
(26 Feb 98 | World)
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