Word: arabia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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JORDAN, with the presumed consent of its ally Saudi Arabia, openly endorsed the Iraqi cause with offers of military aid, including some forces from its well-trained, U.S.-equipped 60,000-man army. King Hussein, who met in Baghdad last week with Iraqi Strongman Saddam Hussein, also organized truck convoys to carry Soviet and East bloc military supplies from the Jordanian port of Aqaba; its harbor was crowded with freighters waiting to unload. Western diplomats speculated that the Saudis, Jordanians and Iraqis had formed a new conservative Arab alliance that was aimed at checking the Iranian brand of revolutionary Islam...
...Baghdad government off and on for several years. President Hafez Assad has accused Saddam Hussein of starting a conflict that distracts Arab energies from the real war, i.e., against Israel. Worried about both his isolation and his vulnerability, Assad in recent months has accused Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia of backing subversives who want to overthrow his regime. On a visit to Moscow last week, he signed a 20-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev similar to the one that Moscow has with Iraq. The Kremlin has long sought such a treaty with Syria...
LIBYA, which in September formed a union with Syria that no one in the Middle East takes very seriously, last week became the first and so far only Arab state to give open support to the Iranians. In a stern message to Saudi Arabia's King Khalid and the rulers of smaller gulf states, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi declared, "Islamic duty dictates that we ally ourselves with the Muslims in Iran in this crusade [against] the West." From Israel came reports that Iranian air force cargo and refueling planes were flying jet fuel to Tehran from Libya...
...necessary. Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced that the U.S., despite its frequent declarations of neutrality, would "respond to requests for assistance from nonbelligerent friends in the area who feel threatened by the conflict." The U.S. military contingent supporting four electronic surveillance planes (AWACS) loaned to Saudi Arabia had grown to more than 800 men last week. Additional troops and equipment were expected soon. A U.S. military assistance team flew to Riyadh for talks with Saudi officials. Said a State Department specialist: "We are stepping up our dialogue with the Saudis on what they need for their air defense...
...annual pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca. Day after day they waited for buses to meet them at the Allenby Bridge spanning the Jordan River, the boundary between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to begin their 18-hour overland journey to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia. Finally, on the tenth day of their vigil, the first of 125 dusty vehicles rolled into view. War or no war, the hajj would...