Conflict and Tension

Why was there tension?

• When Britain drew the borders of Iraq in the 1920's they failed to take into accouhnt the ethnic groupings and this led to ternsion within the Iraqi borders and beyond.
• Iranian Revoloution:
• America supported the Shah in Iran financially and politically despite his abuse of human rights because they wanted acess to their oil supply.
• On the 16th January 1979 the monarchy was overthrown by Ayotollah Komheni as it was widely believed that the Shah's government was corrupt because it had close ties with the US ( western Christian group).
• Khomeni wanted to return to a more fundamental style of Islam - he was shia and believed theat they should strictly follow Mohammad's teachings.
• The new republic of Iran wanted to export fundamentalism across to its neighbours - which worried Iraq's Sunni Muslims and their leader Saddam Hussain (also Sunni) as their country was majority Shiite but they had a Sunni governement.
• Iran wanted all Sunni governments destroyed as they saw them as traitors to Islam.

Why did it happen?

• Hussein felt threatened after the Iranian revoloution as most of his country were Shiite despite his government being Sunni, and Khomeni was using this to advantage and trying to get the Shiite muslims to revolt against Hussein.
• As well as wanting Sunni-led governments to be destroyed, Khomeni wanted the maltreatment of Shiite Muslims - for example in Iraq, to change. Hence the revoloution etc.
• In response to this Hussein invaded Iran that would lead to a 8 year war in 1980, and this war would not lead to a clear winner.
• Hussein was threatened by the Shia majority in his country who were becoming more radicalised and felt it their duty to sweep aside all Sunni- led governments.
• Hussein therefore attacked first and believed he could use the confusion from Irans revoloution to his advantage, as well as gaining support from other countires, however he simply unified Iran and made him their number one enemy.
• In July 1988, a peace agreement was made between both countries.

United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA:

• Supported Iraq.
• Shocked by the Iranian Revoloution and the threat it posed to them ( the spread of fundamental Islam to their countries)
• Supplied Iraq (Hussein) with money and weaponry to continue the war

Neighbouring Countries:

• Countires closest to the war that were led by Sunni Governments were fearful that their own Shiite Muslims would be radicalised by the Iranian Shiites.
• 43 Muslims States as well as Palensitine all attended a confrence but little was achieved there as Iran wasn't there.

Libya and Syria:

• Iran's biggest supporters and they supplied Iran with arms throughout the war.
• Iran also had many supporters from other countries.

• Hussein knew that neither Russia or America would welcome militant Iranian fundamentalism spreading throughout an area that held most of the worlds oil reserves - as a result he was confident he would gain their support.

American Interests:

• Britain, USA, France all sent arms to Iraq to help they fight.
• Whilst also sending arms to Iraq, they were also secretely supplying Iran with arms too - which would later cause contreversy.
• In 1984, Naval forces were sent in to protect oil tankers as Iranian gunboats were bombing them in the Gulf, as well as threatening Iraqi cities.
• USA warships also took direct military action on Iran at times.

Russian Interests:

• USSR had been fighting the Mujahedeen in Afghan since 1974 who had been threatening to provoke Muslims living in Russia.
• Russia sent weapons to Iraq to help fight Iran.

Creation of Israel:

• Created in 1948, its existance had been challenged by the Arab world (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Jordan)
• They were angry because there was an increase of Jews living in a previously mainly Muslim area , despite J, M and C living peacfully in this area before.
• Muslims were angry at the loss of their land - Jews was increasing whilst theirs was decreasing.
• Despite wars in 1948, 1956 and 1973, Israel survived and the land controlled by America increased.
• Camp David Agreement (1978-9) led to peace between Israel and Eygypt however other Arab Nations didn't like this.
• By the 1980's there was still no likelihood of peace between Syria, Jordan and Israel nor with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
• The PLO was formed in 1964 and was considered to be a terrorist group by the US and Israel.
• Their aim was to liberate Palestine through armed struggle with Israel.

• In August 1990 Hussein invaded Kuwait.
• By 19th August 1990, it had been announced Kuwait was now Iraq's 19th Provence.

Reasons for the Invasion:

• Kuwaiti Wealth: Kuwait was rich in oil and had a weak army so it was an easy way for Iraq to solve their economic problems and not have to pay back the $40 billion he owed them from the Iran-Iraq War. Hussein was also suspicious that they had boosted their oil supply beyond the quotas meaning the price for oil fell worldwide and Iraq wanted to recoup any losses as they were already struggling for money from the cost of the Iran-Iraq War.
• Ambition For Power: Hussein wanted to lead the Pan-Arabic world and gaining more land would help this. Furthermore, victory in Kuwait would produce a more visible result than the Iran-Iraq war had - boosting propaganda in Iraq as well as popularity of himself and morale. Saddam's reasoning for attack Kuwait was that it had historically been part of Iraq - although this was not the true reason.
• International Disentrest: Hussein assumed that western countries - especially the US would disinterested in what he was doing in Kuwait, or be sympathetic. The US had aided both Iran and Iraq in the war - Husein thought they wouldn't intervene in Kuwait.

• Hussein was very wrong in the belief that the western world would not intervene, the UK and US were worried by the idea of a Gulf dominated by him.
• UN co-ordinated conflict would follow his invasion of Kuwait.
• President Bush called for a withdrawel of Iraqi forces in Kuwait immediatly after the invasion - however this was ignored.
• There were many reasons for and against intervention against Hussein, however ultimately the decision was made to intervene.
• 30 countries joined a UN coallition against Saddam and contributed to the international force of over 600,000 soldiers assembling in Saudi Arabia - however the coalliton was fragile.
• The UN imposed restrictions - there was an embargo on oil, foreign trade too and Iraq's overseas assests were frozen - negatively affecting the already struggling Iraq economy.
• Hussein was told to withdraw all forces by the 15th of January (1991) or else military action would follow.
• Desert Shield: Non-Combat phase of the war, buildup of troops and defence in Saudi Arabia and the Ultimatum for Iraq to leave Kuwait.

Reasons For Intervening:

• Hussein was causing international anger with the poor treatment of Kuwaiti nationals and the westerners that were living in Kuwait.
• Eygypt and Saudi Arabia were open to joining the coalltion against Hussein.
• Britain and America were worried that Saudi would be Huseeins next target because of his verbal attacks against the country - so as a results troops were deployed in August 1990.
• Thatcher pressed for Bush to deploy troops and eventually he was convinced to do so.
• Thatcher was also worried that a war in Kuwait would impact the oil supply.

Reasons Against Intervening:

• Arab League warned against intervening, as well as Yemen and Jordan.
• Without Arab support it would appear as though the western powers were intervening against a Muslim State - which would only strengthen Hussein's position.
• Sudan openely supported so not every Arab country was against Saddam.

• When: 17th January-17th February 1991.
• Who: The UN Coallition (34 nations led by the US).
• Purpose: To drive Iraqi forces out of Iraq through military action.
• Hostiles began 2 days after the Iraqi forces failed to leave Kuwait by the deadline imposed upon them (18th January 1991).
• Desert Storm: Combat phase of the Gulf War - the first stage of invasion consitied of UN forces attacking military in Baghdad, Kuwait and Iraq - lasting 3 weeks. The second stage lasted less than 5 days - UN ground troops forced Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
• Deaths  - 900,000 estimated and 10,000 occuring during the retreat to Basra (Highway of Death)
• 28th February - Bush announced the liberation of Kuwait.

Saddam's Response:

• Force allied troops to commit to a ground war by sending some of his troops into Saudi. Resulting in America leaving forces there after the conflict had ended for defence - can be seen as a reason for the rise of Al-Qaeda (Osama Bin Laden wanted them removed).
• Scud missiles were sent into Saudi in order to break up the coallition forces and getting Israel to join the fight against Iraq.
• He also destroyed 90% of Kuwait's oil fields and allowed crude oil to posion Gulf waters.

• Despite the victory in Kuwait the Allied Forces were faced with the decision to continue intto Iraq to remove Saddam themselves or allow opposition forces in Iraq to do so for them.

For continuing into Iraq:

• Saddam himself, along with half of his forces had escaped into Iraq.
• This allowed for the oppurtunity for him to continue to cause problems in the area.

Against COntinuing into Iraq:

• It appeared likely that opposition groups in Iraq would rise up and overthrow Hussein and his government without his intervention.
• It was not clear whether Arab countries would support this invasion and this would increase opposition to Western influences if they invaded and Arab countries did not support it.

• Whilst he had suffered an overwhelming defeat, Saddam remained in charge in Iraq after opposition groups failed to overthrow him - making him a threat.
• Shiite and Kurdish groups within Iraq were violently oppressed through chemical weapon attacks and air weapon attacks ( both groups opposed his rule).

Consequences:

• Iraq was banned from using chemical weapons ad had to destroy any WMD's that they had in accordance to UN resolution 687.
• This meant that chemical for fertilizers were banned - which led to malnutrition and starvation, as well as chemicals for sewage being deprived - leading to disease in Iraq.
• Iraq had to pay war reparations for damages caused - if they paid $400 million a month it would take till 2145 to pay off each claim made.
• This meant that Iraq oil production was destroyed, wages of workers plummeted, inflation of prices were out of control - leading to stravation and hardship of the Iraqi people.
• Iraq was also blockaded - leading to food shortages and starvation.
• There was also no fly zones over Iraq put into place.