Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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December was the cruelest month in the Persian Gulf. It brought attacks by Iran and Iraq on at least 29 commercial ships, the highest recorded monthly number since the tanker war began. At the gulf's northern end, the seven-year- old war between the two Islamic rivals threatened to take a menacing turn as Tehran boasted of its ability to produce chemical weapons and a long-range missile. Vowed Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi: "The government is committed to allocating its full potential to the war effort...
Those words hardly comforted the leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which met last week in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh to coordinate defense strategies. The six -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates -- fear that they will be drawn ever more deeply into the conflict. Iran has already launched Chinese Silkworm missiles against Kuwait. At the summit's opening, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd said the Iranians were "pointing their arrows to our chests instead of helping us to liberate Jerusalem from Zionist domination. There is no reasonable justification for this other...
...counter Iranian aggression, the gulf council reportedly raised the possibility of Egyptian military assistance. The entire council, except for Oman, had broken ties with Cairo when it made peace with Israel in 1979. Those relationships have now been restored. Next week Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has spoken of the "indivisible security" of his country and the gulf, will visit the region. Egyptian officers already train pilots and antimissile personnel in Kuwait. Although Cairo is not ready to station troops ( in the gulf, the renewed solidarity between Egypt and the Arab states sends a cautionary signal to Tehran...
...Reagan Administration, meanwhile, says it is willing to study a proposal by the Soviet Union to enforce the embargo with a U.N. naval blockade of the gulf. But the U.S. fears that the lengthy negotiations required to organize such a fleet may interfere with the undertaking of an embargo. Said White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater of the Soviets proposal: "We'll sit down and talk about enforcement measures. But we are slightly suspicious of any measure that tends to increase their involvement and decrease ours." That sentiment was just one more reminder of the larger interests at stake...
Following some of the worst rioting in its occupied territories in 20 years, the army dispenses quick justice in military courts and beefs up its patrols. -- Gulf nations meet to coordinate defense in the widening tanker war. -- Soviet and Afghan troops mount a desperate effort to save the strategic town of Khost from a rebel siege. -- Northern Ireland ends another year of sectarian strife...