Word: arabia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Deterring those nightmares has dominated U.S. diplomacy and military decisions. The Carter Administration persuaded Saudi Arabia and other gulf states to stop letting Iraqi warplanes use Saudi airfields, since such complicity might provoke Iranian reprisals. But the Saudis feared they might be attacked by Iran anyway. At their request, the U.S. dispatched four highly sophisticated airborne warning planes, two tankers for mid-air refueling, a ground radar network and 436 U.S. military personnel to fly and operate all that equipment...
...pacts and battle lines that can shift almost as suddenly and capriciously as the sands of the desert. But the web of political and military ties emerging around the Iraq-Iran conflict is complex and paradox-ridden even by Middle Eastern standards. The basic line-up?Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan versus Iran, Syria and Libya?cuts across almost every political, ideological and sectarian bond in the region and once again makes the old slogan of Arab unity ring hollow...
...overwhelming majority of Syrian and Libyan Arabs are Sunni Muslims. Yet they are allied with the Shi'ite Persians of Iran, whom devout Sunnis consider schismatics. Revolutionary Iraq is fighting its war against Iran with Soviet rifles, tanks, planes and missiles. Its new ally, the ultraconservative monarchy of Saudi Arabia, defends itself against Iran's U.S.-made Phantom jets with the latest American equipment. As Iran chants its hatred of "the Great Satan America," its armed forces are surprising the world, thanks largely to the huge stockpiles of U.S. arms laid away by the late Shah and the skills...
Says Amos Perlmutter, an Israeli expert at Washington's American University, who has served as an occasional adviser to Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign: "The King has made a big difference. He has made it possible for Saddam Hussein to create a new Middle East axis of Iraq-Saudi Arabia-Jordan to replace the old axis of Iran-Saudi Arabia-Egypt. That old one fell apart when the Shah collapsed and Anwar Sadat isolated himself by signing the Camp David treaty. That left a vacuum, which Saddam Hussein, with a lot of help from King Hussein, is now trying...
...Moscow very similar to the one Syria just signed. Another cause of friction: Saddam Hussein has also been cracking down on pro-Moscow Communists inside Iraq. "To say that an Iraqi victory would be a Soviet victory is nonsense," says Arabist James Akins, a former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "Saddam Hussein is No. 1 on the Soviet hit list...