Word: iranian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...life very quickly became considerably more complicated. It was soon apparent that there was no compelling cause for Arab jubilation at Iran's expense and that hopes for a swift Iraqi conquest were exaggerated. The Iranians, recovering from the surprise attack and beginning to fight back, promptly advised everybody in earshot-and within range of their fleet of Phantom jets-that overt support of Iraq would be considered a hostile act, and implied that the fragile and exposed oil facilities of the gulf states would be the first Iranian targets...
...early days of the war, covertly cooperated with Iraqi forces to the extent of giving them the use of base facilities and transit rights for warplanes. That aid and comfort is thought to have dried up as the safety of the oil was placed above the desire to punish Iranian mullahs...
Kuwait's leaders, if they choose to visit their northern border, can see the flames of burning Iranian and Iraqi oil installations; their nation borders on the war zone. Kuwait shares Saudi concerns over its own potentially troublesome Shi'ite minorities. Its protestations of strict neutrality were not very persuasive; reporters crossing the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border last week counted over 100 gleaming new Toyota Landcruisers waiting to roll into Iraq. Nevertheless, Kuwait is also understandably schizophrenic about supporting Iraq because of a special problem: Iraq has longstanding territorial claims on Kuwait. If Iraq were...
...well as Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, all root under their breath for Iraq. Despite apprehensions about Saddam Hussein's long-term military and political ambitions, they sense a more imminent threat from Iran. Bahrain in particular is nervous about Tehran, not only because the mullahs have revived ancient Iranian claims to its territory but because Bahrain's Sunni Emir rules a population over half of whom are Shi'ites...
Like some hibernating monster that has roused itself to feed, the Western world's oil-fed inflation once again has national economies in a bear hug. Last week the squeeze grew tighter. There were reports from the Persian Gulf that the damage inflicted on Iraqi and Iranian oilfields during the current fighting would take months, and perhaps years, to repair. As a result, oil-importing countries are soon likely to see tightening oil markets and then higher crude prices...