Kuwait was unwilling to waive the debts that Iraq had borrowed from the Iraq-Iran war. Before the Iraq-Kuwait conflict took place, Iraq had a war with Iran, fighting against the Iranian government ideology that wanted the Middle East to be a Muslim region. During this war, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had lent Iraq money for them to fight Iran. However, after the war ended, Iraq was left with a devastated economy. Originally, Kuwait refused to waive the war debt Iraq had taken from them, which left Iraq's economy in a poor state. Although they did waive the debts later on, Iraq's economy was so poor then that Iraq had to turn to the invasion of Kuwait in order to gain resources to sustain her economy. Hence, Kuwait was to be blamed for the conflict as Kuwait had originally refused to waive off the debts Iraq had taken for the Iraq-Iran war.

Kuwait defied OPEC's regulations producing oil and over-produced oil. This caused oil prices to drop and caused the economy of Iraq to fall as they lost a lot of money.

Kuwait should be blamed as it caused tension between the two countries especially economically. After the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq was already in debt and needed more revenue in order to sustain and rebuild their country. With the decrease in manpower, damage of infrastructure and loss of resources, Iraq could only depend on the production and sale of oil in order to replenish their resources and stabilize the economy. However, this could not be carried out due to the actions of Kuwait. Kuwait ignored the quota set for the production of oil and produced more than what is allowed, resulting in a plunge in oil prices. This would mean Iraq would have to set the price of their oil lower and would gain lesser revenue. This results in an economical warfare due as Iraq's income relies heavily on oil sales. Therefore, tension is created between these countries due to Kuwait's ignorance of the quota.

Another reason why Kuwait should be blamed can be justified from the unwillingness Kuwait is to help Iraq's economy to stabilize. Due to the fact the Iraq is mostly land-bound and only minimal access to the sea, Iraq had a less efficiency of transporting oil out of their land to sell to other countries. Thus Iraq had seeked Kuwait to lend 2 Island that had access to sea and a good port, which Iraq would pay so that they would be able to sell their oil and become economic stable and there would be no need to start a war. However, Kuwait being afraid that Iraq would be a competitor in selling oil, though they are already economic wealthy, rejected the request. Thus not only did this worsen the economic crisis that Iraq is currently having, it also worsened the relationship between Kuwait and Iraq which build up tension and resulted into war. All of this is due to the selfishness of Kuwait of not lending 2 island that could had led to peace among them, but because this didn't happen, this resulted to the Gulf war therefore Iraq should be blamed for starting the Gulf war.