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
• 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
“Now we’re
talkin…that’s not
so hard, right
guys?”
• Under the Oslo Accord, the PLO and Israel
symbolically ended their impasse:
1.
2.
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
Meanwhile, Jewish settlements in Gaza
and West Bank would remain under
Israeli protection
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
Benjamin
Netanyahu
• The Israeli’s in 1996 elected a
Conservative, Benjamin
Netanyahu who opposed the
peace process but promised to
uphold the Oslo agreements
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 Islam
1990s - 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 alQaeda