Word: arabia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...frustrated commander of RDF, must spend as much time bickering with Pentagon brass as he does solving problems in the field. At the top of his list of requirements, for example, is equipment to produce large quantities of drinking water. Should his troops be dispatched to parched Saudi Arabia, each man would need twelve gallons a day to keep going. At the moment, all kinds of devices are being considered, including one that would condense water from desert...
...France and Japan, which relied on Iraq for a significant portion of their imports. So far, the squeeze on most other importers has been minimal. The U.S. and 19 other member nations of the International Energy Agency hold estimated reserves equaling a 150-day supply of imports. Also, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are partly compensating for the war-induced shortfall by raising their production levels as much as 1.5 million...
...market could be thrown into a panic if Saudi Arabia were sucked into the war or if tanker traffic were interrupted through the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the Persian Gulf. That 36-mile-wide channel has been the lifeline for some 40% of the non-Communist world's total supply. Experts fear that the price of oil could soar beyond $100 per bbl., triple the current price, if the war were to widen or the strait were to be closed...
...find itself on the sidelines of the current trouble is particularly frustrating and ominous. This marks the first time in the long and variegated history of modern Middle Eastern warfare that the U.S. has neither diplomatic relations with, nor political leverage on, either of the combatants. Commented Saudi Arabia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal: "The almost total absence of any U.S. sway with the parties directly involved in such a dangerous situation is sobering to say the least...
Fortunately the U.S. did have some sway with the Saudis themselves and with their neighbors the Omanis. To its credit, the Administration worked quickly and quietly behind the scenes to dissuade Saudi Arabia and Oman from making their airfields available to Iraqi planes and thus exposing themselves to Iranian retaliation. But that accomplishment was offset by the Administration's inability to prevent King Hussein of Jordan, a longtime friend of the U.S., from throwing in his lot with Iraq...