Conflict between Kuwait and Iraq

Causes of Conflict between Iraq and Kuwait

Conflict over territories
One of the causes of the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait was the claim over the Bubiyan and Warbah Islands. These islands belonged to Kuwait, but Iraq wanted these islands as it would help Iraq gain access to the open waters of the Persian Gulf. The Iraqis had even attempted to gain these islands by force in the 1960s and 1970s. Since 1978, Iraq had tried to lease the islands instead. Kuwait’s refusal to grant this request worsened the relationship between both sides as Iraq saw Kuwait’s refusal as an attack on its national interest. This lead to the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait

The borders Iraq & Kuwait inherited from the British after independence were not well-defined. One such contention was over the profitable Rumaila oilfields in 1990. Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing its oil at the Iraq side of the oil filed by using slant-drilling technology & demanded Kuwait stopped drilling and pay Iraq US$2.4 billion in compensation. This led to the Iraq-Kuwait war as Kuwait refused to compensate, standing firm that their drilling activities were legitimate. This led to worsening of tension between both countries that increased the chances of war.


Historical Enmity
Another factor that caused the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait was the historical enmity that existed between them. Iraq had all along considered Kuwait to be part of Iraq. As such, Iraq expected Kuwait to give in to its demands. Kuwaiti’s refusal to give in to Iraq resulted in shock and anger. As a result, Iraq was even more aggressive in trying to force Kuwait to give in to their demands. The result was a worsening of the relationship between the two as Kuwait might have seen the Iraqi actions as bullying.

Overproduction of Oil by Kuwait / Economic problems / Oil Production
Overproduction of Oil by Kuwait is another cause of conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. Before the start of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to 1988, Iraq was a relatively prosperous country with about US$35 billion in reserves. Iraq suffered tremendously during the war with Iran. Besides the heavy loss of lives, Iraq’s economy was in ruins. Iraq owed about US$80 billion in debts to its neighbours and other countries that had supplied it with food and war equipment. The reconstruction of the war-torn country also required a massive US$230 billion. Iraq, thus, had to find ways to pay off this massive debt as well as to rebuild the country. Iraq had hoped to pay off its debt by earning more revenue from the sale of oil. However, oil prices were falling due to over-production by some countries. OPEC had put quotas on the amount of oil that its member countries could produce to prevent a further decline in oil prices. Kuwait and the UAE, however, ignored the quota set and produced oil well about their assigned limits. This caused oil prices to fall from US$18 to US$7 per barrel at one point. Iraq lost a lot of revenue due to the fall in oil prices. Iraq lost US$1 billion from oil sales each time the price of oil fell by one US dollar. Iraq felt that the action of Kuwait and the UAE was equivalent to waging an economic war on Iraq as 90% of its income came from the sale of oil. This worsened the relationship as Iraq saw Kuwait’s refusal as an attack on its interest and hence Iraq decided to launch an attack on Kuwait.


Which is most important reason for the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait?
Although there were many reasons for the worsening of relations between Iraq and Kuwait, perhaps the most significant cause of the conflict could be the over-production of oil by Kuwait which resulted in the worsening of Iraq’s economic problems. Iraq was already facing immense debts and problems with rebuilding the country after the long war with Iran. The money to pay off this debt and rebuild the country would come from the sale of oil. The over-production of oil meant that Iraq received less revenue than it needed and this increased pressure on the Iraqi government. Historical enmity is not as important because it was an issue that had existed since the time of Kuwait’s existence and did not threaten Iraq’s survival then. It could have been a contributing factor but the immediate problem facing Iraq then was economic in nature.


Role of United Nations

One of the aims of UN is to maintain world peace and security. Despite UN less successful attempts in bringing peace and security to some troubled areas in the world, the Gulf War serves as a good example of the capabilities of the UN to gather its resources to deter aggression.

The main reason for the success in the Gulf War is the involvement of the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States).

UN peacekeeping missions could be effective in resisting aggression if the following conditions were met:

High threat to all UN members leading to general consensus among permanent members of the Security Council
US leadership and support for UN resolutions
The legitimacy of working through UN Resolution and the rule of law.

Iraq-Kuwait conflict was a crisis that destablished the Middle East and affected the price of oil. The Oil prices jumped 15% in the first few days of the Iraq Invasion. If the price of the oil continue to rise, all countries in the world would be affected negatively, which led to UN resolution 678 being passed, supporting the US-led liberation of Kuwait.

However, due to the limitations of UN resolutions, US and allied troops could not take direct military action to support the Kurdish and shi’ite rebellions against Iraq.
The UN would later only provide safe and humanitarian aid for fleeing Kurdish refugees through no-fly zones and continued to apply economic sanctions against Iraq.

The Gulf War was resolved in a relatively short period of time due to the fact that the aggressor was known. As such diplomatic attempts could be made to negotiate for a settle, and when that failed, there was a target for coalition force to attack.

Impacts of Iraq-Kuwait conflict

The Impact on Kuwait was a damaging result of the conflict. Kuwait suffered heavy losses on both its society as well as on its economy. Many Kuwaiti civilians were killed and thousands of others were tortured. Kuwaitis were also treated harshly to force them to flee their own country. The economy also suffered tremendous losses as the Iraqi army set fire to 600 out of the 950 oil wells in Kuwait. Damages to Kuwait amounted to over US $25 billion.

The Impact on Iraq was a damaging result of the conflict. The Iraqi military capability was badly destroyed as coalition forces had utilised state-of-the art weapons in their campaign against Iraqi troops. The heavy losses suffered by the Iraqis resulted in a loss of morale among the remaining troops.

Political instability in Iraq arose as Kurds tried to overthrow Saddam as they felt that his power was on the decline. However, Saddam dealt harshly with the uprisings against him. As a result, thousands of Kurds were massacred and almost one million Kurdish refugees fled Iraq.

Suffering of Iraqis was also apparent. Operation Dessert Storm resulted in the destruction of a large part of Iraqi infrastructure. Also, the Iraqi people suffered as they could not carry out their daily activities due to a disrupted supply of electricity. They also suffered from a spread of diseases as the water supply in the country was contaminated

The Regional and Environmental Impact was another damaging result of the war. The Gulf War created an environmental catastrophe and also resulted in a severe displacement of foreign workers which created great suffering for their families back home. The Iraqi forces set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells, dumped about 11 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf, thus greatly threatening marine life and cost millions of dollars to put out the fires and clear the oil slick. The displacement of foreign workers was so severe that nearly 2 million foreign workers from Bangladesh, India, Egypt, the Philippine and Palestine fled Iraq when war broke out. Workers supporting large families back home suffered sudden loss of income and created great suffering for their families.