S4-05 (Group 3) Who was to blame for the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait?
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Kuwait was to blame for the start of the First Gulf War. Iraq was suffering from economic problems at home since the end of the Iran-Iraq war which ended a number of years earlier. Other than having to spend US$230 billion to rebuild the country it also had owed its allies which had supported it in the war some US$80 billion. Thus, Iraq had to depend on oil sales, its main export which makes up a large part of its revenue, to pay back its loans and rebuild its infrastructure. However, overproduction of oil by other countries such as Kuwait caused oil prices to fall. Despite a quota set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries(the OPEC), Kuwait refused to scale down its oil production. Iraq would lose US$1 billion each time the price of oil fell by a US dollar. This was clearly Kuwait's means of waging an economic war on Iraq, which was already mostly in ruins. Kuwait also possessed slant-drilling technology for its oilfields, which it used to steal oil from Iraqi oilfields. Furthermore, Kuwait also had control of the islands of Bubiyan and Warbah and they were strategically located off Iraq's only port Umm Qasr. Kuwait could have easily threatened Iraqi shipping and exports, which would in turn cause economical problems by curbing oil exports from Iraq. Iraq simply had wanted to lease these two islands from Kuwait after attempts to claim ownership of the islands failed. In the end, Kuwait still refused to accept the offer and an agreement was never reached. Kuwait's continued economic pressure and refusal to concede territory in talks with Iraq, in the light that Iraq was still suffering from severe financial problems and debt, meant that Iraq would have had no choice to solve its problems but to use force. 1
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The Iraq military allegedly committed crimes in Kuwait. It tortured and killed hundreds of Kuwaiti nationals also, foreign hostages were taken. Properties were looted and they set fire to more than 600 Kuwaiti oil wells and opened pipelines to let oil pour into Gulf. Hence the Kuwaiti had to flee their homes and country. The damages in Kuwait amounted to over US$25 billion. Kuwaitis and their supposed allies were unable to negotiate with us peacefully through diplomacy. Adding on, foreign powers were beginning to intervene after Kuwait and its allies had called for help from other nations. Furthermore, these supposed incidents of hostage-taking and attacks against civilians only occurred when Kuwait's allies refused to listen to our warning for other countries to intervene in our affairs instead of simply solving the problem with diplomacy in the start. However, Kuwait was not able to adhere to a diplomatic solution, which was why we had to choose to fight in the first place. 1
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Iraq is to be blamed. We were not trying to antagonise you but rather we were trying to solve the problem peacefully to avoid war that will cause both countries to suffer. We had not only given concessions to Iraq, but also agreed to raise the prices of oil just so you could earn more money. Plus the fact that we provide you a loan of US$14 billion which was a large sum of money. Possible concessions were overridden by existing Kuwaiti intentions to continue ignoring OPEC oil price quota. We may have solved our short term financial issue with loans and so on, but Kuwait was clearly preventing us from recovering in the long term by restricting us from oil production and export by not conceding to territorial requests. 1
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