Kuwait's Warning for Israel

by Daniel Pipes
Apr 8, 2000

https://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2000/04/kuwait-warning-for-israel

Iraqis first demanded that Kuwait be part of their homeland in 1937, they then reiterated this claim many times later (most notably in 1961, upon Kuwait's independence). The claim, however, seemed to be defunct in the 1980s, when the Kuwaitis gave the Saddam Hussein government some $16 billion in assistance to fight Iran in the 1980-88 war.

When I inquired of Kuwaitis during a March 1989 visit about the Iraqi claim, their scoffing replies made me feel almost foolish for even raising the topic. And yet the Iraqi onslaught took place just over a year later, when Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990, vanquishing it in about four hours.

The lesson is clear for Israel: those who blithely would close the book on the danger of catastrophe could well be mistaken. (April 8, 2000)

Related Topics: Arab-Israel conflict & diplomacy, Kuwait

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