Chapter 20

“The Gulf War and Peace Process

Gulf Crisis• In the 18th century, Arab bedouins

settled on the northwestern end of the Persian Gulf and called their community “Kuwayt” or “small fort”. The Sabah family managed the affairs of the small community through the 19th into the 20th century

• In 1899, Sheik al-Sabah severed Kuwaiti’s ties to the Ottoman Empire and aligned with the British

• When the British fixed the borders of their Iraqi Mandate in 1921, they created Kuwait

• When Iraq gained independence in 1932, they called for border adjustments to include Kuwait within their territory. The British refused, and kept an occupying force in Kuwait until 1961

• Kuwait gained its independence in 1961

• Although Iraq recognizes Kuwaiti independence in 1963, they from time to time argued that Kuwait should be annexed

• Simultaneously in the 1960s, Kuwait began to develop its oil. Legendary wealth was accumulated wholly from selling oil discovered and developed by foreigners

• Wealth has always been concentrated in the hands of the Sabah dynasty.

• Iraq borrowed $15 billion from Kuwait during the Iraq-Iran War

• After the war, Hussein was dismayed because Kuwait was selling oil at cheap prices to the West and he wanted to raise the price to regain losses incurred from the long war. Kuwait refused to change their price. Hussein accused Kuwait of trying to impoverish Iraq and of overpumping from their jointly owned oil field at Rumaylah

Oil refinery in Kuwait

Iraq’s Annexation of Kuwait• The Iraqi Army invaded and occupied Kuwait on August 2nd, 1990

• The Sabah family and other high officials fled to Saudi Arabia and called on international assistance to win back their country

• Arab neighbors responded slowly to the crisis

• The U.S. promptly condemned the invasion and froze all Iraqi assets in the U.S.

• After winning the consent of the Saudi government, President George Bush began airlifting troops and supplies into the Kingdom. By November, 1990, the U.S. had more than 400,000 soldiers encamped in northeastern Saudi Arabia

• The UN Security Council passed a series of Resolutions calling on Iraq to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait and on other member states to impose sanctions on Iraq until they complied

• The U.S. and G.B. threatened military action if Iraq refused to pull out. For Saddam, these demands were a direct challenge and they refused to pull out

“Saddam! Stop messing around and get out of Kuwait already. What are you thinking???”

“Kuwait belongs to Iraq. Why do you care anyways? We won’t bow down to your threats.”

Crisis of Arab Legitimacy

• While Hussein was viewed as a folk hero by some Arabs, a number of Arab countries did not support him

• Saudi Arabia was now occupied by 500,000 foreign soldiers

• Egypt and Syria supported the U.S. led coalition

Operation Desert Storm• Saddam’s rejection of the UN Resolutions led to the

outbreak of war on January 17th, 1991

• After massive aerial bombardments of Iraq’s military facilities, Iraq launched Scud missiles into Israel. Hussein hoped that if Israel counterattacked it would cause Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria to switch sides

• The U.S. convinced Israel not to counterattack, and Israel complied

• Iraq captured western military and civilians and would make them confess their “crimes” on state run television

Saddam captured Westerners living in Iraq and forced them to confess their “crimes”. He also used them as human shields

General Colin Powell addressing Bush and his advisors

• After heavy air attacks, U.S. ground forces pushed Iraqi’s soldiers out of Kuwait in 100 hours

The “Highway of Death”. U.S. airforce bombarded Iraqi’s retreating from Kuwait

Hussein had Kuwaiti oil fields set on fire and dumped thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The region has yet to recover from the environmental damages this caused

Gulf War I Casualties:

U.S. & Coalition: 358 killed

Iraq: 20,000 – 200,000 killed (military and civilian)

• American forces pushed retreating Iraqi’s all the way b ack to Baghdad and stopped. Fighting ended on February 27th, 1991. It was a remarkably swift American victory

• In the meantime, Shi’is in the South rose up against Saddam as well as Kurds in the North

• They were unable to overthrow Saddam. Saddam believed he had won the war because he stayed in power

• The UN placed harsh sanctions on Iraq that hurt the Iraqi people more than their leaders

• The UN also insisted on destruction of Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons which Saddam resisted until 1997

• In 1997, Saddam consented to a UN deal that allowed Hussein to sell $2 billion of Iraqi oil every six month in exchange for imported food, medicine and other necessities. This was called the “Oil for Food Program”

• Saddam also opened up the country to weapons inspectors in 1997. However, they were forced to leave in 1998 when the U.S. resumed tactical air strikes on Iraq in response to air space violations by the Iraqi airforce

Palestinians and the Peace Process• In the 1990s, the “Arab-Israeli Conflict” became known as the

“Palestinian –Israeli Conflict”

• The first Palestinian “Intifada” began in December, 1987 in Gaza

• Intifada – literally means “shaking off”

• By 1987, a more radical rival to the PLO emerged – “Hamas”. (It has since been proven that Hamas was covertly aided by Israel to be a rival to the PLO)

• Part of the reason for the intifada was that the Arab states had essentially abandoned the PLO

• The PLO viewed their uprising in 1987 as a means to achieve foreign recognition and legitimacy

• The Palestinian National Council voted to declare an independent “State of Palestine” which was quickly recognized by 100 other countries

• Chairman Arafat publicy denounced terrorism and offered to recognize Israel

• However, many Palestinians, particularly those in Hamas rejected any recognition of Israel and stepped up attacks. Violence intensified through 1987 and 1988 in the occupied territories

Peace Process in Arab – Israeli Relations• By 1990, the USSR had stopped supporting Arab enemies of

Israel. Gorbachev recognized Israel and vowed to join the U.S. in helping along the peace process

• Peace talks, with both sides at the table, resumed in 1990. However, attacks continued in the occupied territories stalling any negotiations

• Terrorism spread to the U.S. when a group of Egyptians blew up part of the World Trade Center in 1993

• An exiled Saudi millionaires, Osama bin Laden, in suspected to have inspired the Trade Center bombing. He orchestrated attacks on U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998

Oslo I Accord• In 1993, Norway’s Foreign Minister had

organized secret talks between the PLO and Israel in Oslo. In September, the Oslo Accord was signed in Washington

• Under the Oslo Accord, the PLO and Israel symbolically ended their impasse:

1. Israel agreed to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip and allow the PLO to set up a “self-governing authority” there as a first step towards full political autonomy. Israel followed through on this

2. Meanwhile, Jewish settlements in Gaza and West Bank would remain under Israeli protection

“Now we’re talkin…that’s not so hard, right guys?”

Rabin and Arafat after signed the Oslo I Accord

Oslo II Accord• Oslo fell short of its expectations as Israeli’s continued to

build new settlements in the West Bank and Hamas continued attacks on Israel

• At Oslo II in 1995:

1. Set up three West Bank zones. Zone A included 8 towns which would be turned over to the Palestinians. Zone B contained other towns which the Palestinian police would maintain order over, but Israel retailed full security for. Zone C included Israeli settled areas which Israel retained full security over

• Once again, Israeli and Palestinian extremists combined to derail the peace process

• An Israeli fundamentalist killed Prime Minister Rabin at a peace rally in November, 1995.

• Hamas continued rocket and suicide bomb attacks on Israel

• The Israeli’s in 1996 elected a Conservative, Benjamin Netanyahu who opposed the peace process but promised to uphold the Oslo agreements

Benjamin Netanyahu

The Second Intifada

• When General Ariel Sharon made a highly public visit to the Muslim shrines atop the Temple Mount in September, 2000, it resulted in attacks on Jewish settlements. The IDF struck back with massive retaliation. The 2nd Intifada had begun

• Sharon is chosen as PM the next year

• Palestinians continued to carry out suicide bombings within Israel which were always followed by IDF incursions into the occupied territories

Ariel Sharon

Growth of Fundamentalist Islam1990s - Present

• Jordan: Islamist parties have won votes due to bad economic conditions, disillusionment with the Pal./Israeli peace process, and anger at the U.S.

• Egypt: Islamists won control of professional unions in 1992. Mubarak has banned Islamist political parties

• Sudan: Islamic government of Sudan has led to a civil war between Arab Muslims in the north and Black animist/Christians in the south (Darfur)

• Afghanistan: The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban (Muslim students) won control of most of Afghanistan in 1996. They provided safe haven for a network called Al-Qaeda which was born out of Islamic revolutionaries who came to Afghanistan to help drive out the Soviets and who were led and financed by Osama bin Laden

• Iran: President Muhammad Katami, elected in 1997, tried to ease some Islamic restrictions and open relations with the West, in contrast to the hard line Khomeini.

Muhammed Omar,

Taliban Leader

Osama bin Laden,

Leader of al-Qaeda