Iraq Invasion of Kuwait: Gulf War 1990-1991 - Essay Example

Iraq Invasion of Kuwait: Gulf War 1990-1991 The outline of the study is as follows: (a) Introduction...………………………………………............................................p 2 1.0 Brief history of Kuwait...........................................................................p 2 2.0 The ruling family in Kuwait...................................................................p 2 3.0 Geography of Kuwait..............................................................................p 3 4.0 Demographic information of Kuwait.......................................................p 3 (b) Body 1.0 Reasons for Iraq Aggression against Kuwait..............................................p 4 2.0 Threats Iraq against Kuwait in the Years 1961, 1963, 1973 and 1976..........p 4 3.0 Repercussions of Kuwait Support of Iraq War against Iran..................................p 7 4.0 Grievances made by Iraq after the End of War with Iran.............................p 7 5. 0 Iraq Invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s........................................................p 9 6.0 Response to Iraqi Invasion by the International Community...........................p 10 (c) Conclusion.........................................................................................................p 12 (a) Introduction This paper will seek to provide an account of the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in the Early 1990s and the reasons behind the aggression by Iraq. More specifically, it will try to give an answer to the questions: “What were the reasons for Iraq’s attack on Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War of 1990s? What measures did the international community take to tame the Iraq aggression?” The study will first provide a background of Kuwait as a state before proceeding to cover the study topic. 1.0 Brief history of Kuwait Kuwait has its origin in traced from the early civilization of the 3rd millennium B.C. and it is believed to have been involved in trade with the Mesopotamian cities. The city of Kuwait was founded at the beginning of the 18th century by the Anizah tribe of Central Arabia and later it became an autonomous sheikhdom. In the late 18th through the early 19th centuries, the sheikdoms were under the Ottoman Empire. In 1897, Kuwait approached the British for protection since the sheikh feared an invasion from the Turks in his strong holds. In 1961, Kuwait gained independence after the British ended the protectorate, but they (the British) agreed to provide military support to Kuwait upon request. (infoplease.com, 2011) 2.0 The ruling family in Kuwait Kuwait is today ruled by the family of Al Sabah. The Al Sabah leadership is viewed as an integral part of the modern state of Kuwait. The Al Sabah family controls and regulates the activities of the government of Kuwait on a day to day basis. As a result, they receive payment in form of salary from the state. The Al Sabah is compared with a corporation. It has its own policies and work plans and means of implementing them. The family has evolved to a hierarchy, which is respected in Kuwait. The family has a council; which meets regularly and has institutionalized a dynasty, which is led by an Amir, and a contender for such a post should remain neutral. (Zahlan, 1989, p 79) 3.0 Geography of Kuwait Kuwait is a small country located in the northwestern side of the Arabian and Persian Gulf between 28030’ 300 north latitude, and 46030’ to 48030’ east longitude (Kuksy, 2010, p 35). Kuwait has an approximate size of 17,818 square kilometers. The extreme distance between north-south is 200km, and the extreme distance between west-east is 170 km. Kuwait derives its wealth from Kuwait bay, which is a large natural inlet that extends 40km into her mainland. Kuwait shares a boarder with Iraq from the north and North West, with Saudi Arabia in the south and south west and the Gulf borders Kuwait from the eastern side. (Usa and USA International Business Publications, 2007, p 32) 4.0 Demographic information of Kuwait The current population of Kuwait is estimated to be about 3-3.5 million people. This population is composed of Kuwait’s local people who are about one million and foreigners who are about 2-2.5 million. In the year 2009, there were 580,000 Indian nationals living in Kuwait. The rest of the population comprised of Egyptians, Pakistani, Sri Lankans, and Bangladeshi. There is also not a big population of European, North American and North Asian communities in Kuwait. From the overall population in Kuwait, 60-65 % is Arabic including Kuwait and non-Kuwait Arabs, 30-35% Asian, mostly from Iran and India, and 5-10% is signified to others, who include Africans (blacks), Europeans and East Asians. The non Arabs are referred to as Ajams and they include the Persians, the East Asians, the Europeans, and other white populations. (swarthmore.edu, 2011) (b) Body 1.0 Reasons for Iraq Aggression against Kuwait Before Kuwait gained independence, Iraq was not a unified or independent country. It was made up of three separate provinces; Baghdad, Maul, and Basra. According to the Iraqi government, Kuwait was part of Basra during the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the areas known as Iraq from the mid 16th century up to the World War I. These claims were not confirmed by either British agreements or maps, however. The Kuwait government saw the claims made by Iraq as only to provide justification for aggression since the al-Sabah royal family of Kuwait had established an autonomous sheikhdom in 1756. Thus, Kuwait and other Arab countries considered the aggression by Saddam as an obsession made to obtain quick money and extend political power. (Yetiv, 1997, p 7) Saddam thought by invading Kuwait, he would gain control over the Persian Gulf islands of Bubiyan and Warba, and over Kuwait’s extensive harbor, which was approximately 120 miles along the Gulf coastline. In contrast, Iraq was virtually a landlocked country with a coastline of 15 miles on the Gulf, some of which was inaccessible. Saddam thought that a successful invasion of Kuwait would enable him dominate the Persian Gulf and possibly the Arab world in general. The subsequent control over Kuwait and influence over the Arab oil fields would enable him have more money to purchase weapons of mass destruction. As a result, this would help Iraq regain its ancient glory as well as be able to deal with economic problems. (Yetiv, 1997, p 8) 2.0 Threats of Iraq Invasion of Kuwait in the Years 1961, 1963, 1973 And 1976 In 1961, Iraq prepared up its military personnel and appeared to prepare to annex Kuwait because it lacked substantial defensive abilities. This resulted into a rapid deployment of British forces to Kuwait in early July of 1963. This caused the Iraqi forces to withdraw. In 1963, a week after Kuwait gained independence from the British; Iraq president Abdul Karim Kassem announced his intention to invade Kuwait. Iraq for a long time, as noted earlier, claimed that Kuwait was part of its province. In the year 1961, Kuwait was rated as the fourth-largest producer of oil in the world and the largest single supplier of oil to Britain. According to Leffler and Odd (2009, p 503), Oil from Kuwait was purchased in sterling pounds and this combined British Petroleum’s stake of 50% in Kuwait Petroleum Company and Kuwait investment in Britain worth $ 300 million made Kuwait an important nation to Britain. The Iraq forces began their expedition by moving south towards Baghdad. When Kuwait heard of these developments, Abdullah al-Salim Al Sabah, the Kuwait Emir (leader) then, requested for British military help. With the Iraq claims on Kuwait, the British backed by the Americans opposed the claim and sent troops immediately to prevent the attack. The response of Britain was immediate and effective even if it was unclear whether Iraq was actually intending to attack. The other Arabian countries were similarly annoyed by Iraq’s claim, and they immediately admitted Kuwait in the Arab league. They later sent the Arab league security forces to defend Kuwait. The Arab security forces were comprised of troops from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Republic and Saudi Arabia. The immediate intervention led to the halting of the threat and thus, the annex never materialized. The crises come to an end peacefully. The presence of these forces facilitated the withdrawal of forces by the British, while at the same time maintaining its economic interest. (Leffler and Odd, 2009, p503) In March 20, 1973, the Iraq government revived its interests in Kuwait. In this year, the Iraqi troops occupied a narrow strip found on the Iraq-Kuwait boarder post of Al Samitah, pretending it was protecting the Iraq coastline from what was alleged to as impending attacks by Iran. The Iraqi troops remained on the coastline for a decade, which was against the wishes of Kuwait government. (Yetiv, 1997, p 7) Kuwait blamed Iraq for having provoked the incident. Kuwait was forced to declare a state of emergency and reinforce its boarder security. Kuwait appealed for help from the Arab world and other countries in the world. As a result, Egypt and the Arab league intervened and exerted pressure on Iraq. This made Iraq withdraw from the occupied territories in early April. During the negotiations on the invasion by Iraq on Kuwait, Iraq foreign minister voiced his countries claim to the offshore islands of Kuwait, Warbar and Bubiyan. The claim by Iraq on these islands made Kuwait realize that Iraq’s long forgone interest on its territory was not yet over. On the 17th of September of 1976, Kuwait’s a government controlled newspaper, carried a brief report that the Iraq military personnel had been seen crossing the Iraq-Kuwait boarder and they had established a military base two miles away from the Kuwait boarder. A broadcast carried on an Egyptian radio stated that the then Egyptian government was willing to mediate on the boarder dispute between the two countries. However, by the end of 1976, the boarder problem as well as Iraq’s long held claim on the Kuwait’s Islands had not been settled. (Nyrop, 2008, p 185) 3.0 Kuwait Support of Iraq War against Iran Between the year 1980-88, Kuwait became engulfed in the war between Iran and Iraq as it took sides and supported Iraq. The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 posed serious threats to Kuwait security. Kuwait as a result of fearing the hegemony of Iran in the neighborhood provided financial support and military supplies to Iraq. The aftermath was the Iran attacks on Kuwait’s refineries in year 1983 and 1986. In the year 1985, a member of the Underground pro-Iranian Iraq radical group known as al-Da’wah tried to assassinate Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah, a Kuwait ruler. (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011, p 53) On September 1986, Iran changed its retaliatory tactics on Kuwait and Iraq. Iran began to concentrate its target on gulf shipping, mainly on Kuwait tankers. This made Kuwait to seek help from Soviet Union, a country with which it had established diplomatic relations in 1963 and United States to provide security to its tankers in early 1987. The effects of the war were the promotion of closer relations within the Kuwait’s conservative gulf Arab neighbors. That is, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Arab Emirates. These countries had formed the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981 so as to develop a closer look at security matters and cooperation on economic functions. As the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, the relationship between Iraq and Kuwait started to deteriorate and on 2nd August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait unexpectedly. This brought about the Persian Gulf War. (Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011, p 53) 4.0 Grievances made by Iraq after the End of War with Iran After the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq set a number of grievances with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. These grievances set forward by Iraq are said to have arisen from the protection of Arab interest during the Iraq-Iran war. The war led to the pitting of Persian Iran by Iraq and saddam Hussein saw the war would make him a hero through the Arab region. The eight-year war ended in 1988 and left Iraq exhausted politically, militarily and economically. During the war, Iraq had borrowed $ 30 billion to finance the war from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and was unable to repay the loan. Initially saddam requested for the cancellation of the loan, but his request was objected. Later he asked for an additional loan to assist in rebuilding Iraq’s economy which had been destroyed by war. His appeal was also not honored, and his ambitions remained unfulfilled. This made Saddam to finally request that the price of oil be raised, and its production minimized so as to maximize the revenue Iraq was to get from oil. This last request by saddam was also rejected. Kuwait was also alleged to engage in slant drilling oil from her wells into the Rumalia oil fields that were claimed by Iraq and thus, stealing oil from the Iraq oil wells. Just a few months before invading Kuwait, Iraq as a country threatened of dire consequences if Saddam’s requests were not fulfilled. Saddam’s grievances were not considered by any Arab county as well as United States. Saddam considered taking military action and had three options at his discretion; to occupy the Rumilia fields and annex them; to invade, conquer, and annex Kuwait; or to move to the Saudi fields. (Snow and Denis, 2010, p 191) In may 1988, during the Arab league Summit in Baghdad, president Saddam of Iraq demanded from Kuwait twenty seven billion dollars and also demanded that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decrease their oil production. In July 1988, the ministers of oil ministries in the Gulf States met in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to discuss the demands by Iraq state. After constant pressure from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accepted to conform to the new quotas that were imposed. After a period of one and half months, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz of Iraq, accused Kuwait of violating the new quota agreements as well as alleging that Kuwait was stealing oil from the fields of Rumaila, which the two states shared. A day after Aziz’s accusations, Saddam repeated the accusation and threatened Kuwait with military action. Iraq requested that; Kuwait should pay a compensation of 20 billion dollars, which was the net worth of the oil that Kuwait allegedly stole from Iraq Rumila fields located in Iraq with a small section of the territory extending to Kuwait. Iraq constantly insisted that Kuwait had removed oil from the Iraq proportion, which was shared between the two states in the Rumaila oil fields. Towards the end of July 1988, Iraq deployed 30 thousand military troops along the Iraq–Kuwait border, a move which was easily unearthed by the Americans using their advanced satellite technology. (Miller, 1994, p 70) President Saddam Hussein of Iraq met with Hosni Mubarak in Baghdad, the president of Egypt to mediate on the dispute. Afterwards, President Mubarak updated President George Bush of America about his successful mission to Baghdad and the assurance that Iraq had made to him a promise that Iraq would not carry out any military invasion in Kuwait. Later on when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the then Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz claimed that President Saddam had been misunderstood by President Mubarak. According to Iraq Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, President Saddam Hussein had maintained that no action would have been taken against Kuwait as long as the negotiations on the dispute were continued. 5.0 Iraq Invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s The first sign of Iraq’s military threat on Kuwait became evident when six combat vessels were deployed by Iraq backed by United Arab Emirates. This made the American ambassador to Iraq to meet with president Saddam for a short interview. In part of the interview transcript, Saddam made it clear that he was serious on taking military actions on Kuwait if his country’s demands were not honored. The US ambassador left after the interview holding an impression that Iraq would not invade Kuwait but that was a misconception. On July 31, 1988, Iraq and Kuwait officials met again. On August 2, 1988, two days later after the Iraqi-Kuwait meeting, the Iraqi troops crossed the Kuwait boarder and within six hours the entire state of Kuwait had been occupied. 6.0 Response to Iraqi Invasion by the International Community The invasion of Kuwait received an immediate response by Canada through its External Assistant Minister, Joe Clark. In a new release, Joe said that Canada strongly condemned the Iraq military actions against Kuwait and described the action as totally unacceptable. Joe called for complete a withdrawal of military personnel and immediate ending to the hostility. He also made an announcement that Canada’s Ambassador to United Nation had already got in touch with other members of the Security Council. Canada as a country supported an immediate meeting of the Security Council to ensure that there was a clear and effective international response to the aggression by Iraq. (Miller, 1994 p72) The Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney together with the American president George Bush held a lengthy discussion so as to review efforts to bring about collective international pressure for Iraq to terminate its occupation of Kuwait. Additionally, the Canadian Department of External Affairs (DEA) made it known to Iraq government that the following sanctions would be enforced: (a) Suspension of Canada-Iraq Agreement on Trade, technical and Economic Cooperation and the termination of the mostly favored Nations Treatment (The purpose of this action was to ensure that all Iraqis import to Canada a part from oil which was totally embargoed to face higher tariffs). (b) The placement of Iraq on the control list of areas under the export and import Permit Act which would see the Canadian export to Iraq controlled and a ban imposed on imports from Iraq and Kuwait. (c) The Export Development Cooperation would stop to provide financial support to any new business developments to Canadian companies in Iraq and Kuwait. (d) The Canadian-Iraq Memorandum of Understanding on Academic, Sports and Cultural Relation, would be suspended and above all, the Canadian government would freeze all Kuwait’s assets in Canada. After these decisions were arrived at, the Prime Minister Office (PMO) announced that Mulroney had been invited by President Bush of US to White House to discuss the unfolding events in Kuwait. The PMO also revealed that Mulroney had a lengthy discussion with the President of Turkey on the Gulf crises. It also announced that Canada had co-sponsored a motion proposing on the sanction of Iraq in the Security Council. As Mulroney held discussions with Bush in Washington on the then happenings in Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council collectively voted in favor of a global ban on trade with Iraq. At the end of the meeting, Mulroney expressed his support for the United Nations Resolution, and the use of force to remove Iraq from Kuwait including the possible use of Canadian CF-18 NATO aircraft sanctioned in Europe if the need arose. The Canadian government also announced that it was ready to provide troops to join the United Nations’ security forces to enforce any sanctions imposed against Iraq if the United Nations’ required such assistance. In Ottawa, Joe Clark, the External Assistant Minister of Canada, provided details of the sanctions the Canadian government had taken against Iraq. These sanctions were enacted under the United Nations Act. In the Caribbean Parliament and in the House of Commons, the Gulf crisis was discussed. Michael Duffy, the acting minister for foreign affairs, announced that Australia condemned the invasion of Iraq forces on Kuwait and called that the military expeditions be halted and troops be withdrawn. He also announced the Australian government had imposed the following sanctions on Iraq; a ban on oil imports from Kuwait and Iraq, to protect the interest and assets of Kuwait legitimate government in Australia and freeze any assets of Iraq that existed in Australia and the ban on the sale of amour to Iraq. He also announced that the Australian government had revoked the export license for the sale of engine components worth $ 850,000 to Iraq’s Air force and rejected the opening of Iraq Airways office in Sydney. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister passed a motion of which condemned any Iraq invasion of Kuwait as an act of violation of International law. He also condemned Iraq because of posing a threat to the Territorial Integrity of Saudi Arabia people and to foreigners that worked in the region. This motion required Iraq to withdraw its forces from Kuwait unconditionally and immediately besides respecting the rights of foreigners in the region. The House of Commons also supported the resolution 687 (1990) by United Nations, which required that Iraq be kicked out of Kuwait. (Miller, 1994, P 75) (c) Conclusion In Conclusion, it can be noted that the Gulf War of the 1990s could have been avoided had Iraq president Saddam Hussein abandoned his long held notion against Kuwait. That is, Kuwait was part of Iraq’s territory from the historical beginning. Also, the immediate and effective intervention of various nations having interests in Kuwait helped reduce the damages from the war both during the previous threats and in the Gulf War of 1990s. The sanctions imposed on Iraq are seen as a manifestation of the international community commitment to stop Iraq’s unending aggression on its neighboring Arab countries. Work cited: Britannica Educational Publishing .Persian Gulf States: Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, And The United Arab Emirates: Transition. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011, p 53. infoplease.com. Kuwait. (2011). 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(2011). Retrieved on 20th November 2011 http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/ajb/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Demographics_of _Kuwait.html Usa, Ibp and USA International Business Publications. Kuwait Investment and Business Guide .Edition 6. Intl Business Publications, 2007, p 39. Yetiv, Steven A. The Persian Gulf crisis: Greenwood Press Guide to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century. Edition illustrated, annotated. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997, pp 7, 8. Zahlan, Rosemarie Said. The Making of the Modern Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates And Oman: Making of the Middle East. Edition illustrated. Routledge, 1989, p 89. Read More