Word: kassem
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...Death to the imperialist!" shouted Iraq's General Abdul Karim Kassem. "Return Kuwait to its homeland...
Sprinting from speech to speech on the third anniversary of his revolutionary regime, volatile Kassem repeated last week that he would not use force to "liberate" Kuwait-and in the next breath threatened force against Britain. "We shall launch a bitter war against the British if they do not heed right and abandon oppression!" he told the crowds after reviewing a 2½-hour parade of troops and weapons in Baghdad's Liberation Square...
Most Arab governments were still annoyed that Kassem had brought on "imperialist" intervention. Nasser allowed a British aircraft carrier and five other warships to pass through the Suez Canal en route to Kuwait without a word of protest, but finally decided he disliked the British more than Kassem. "Kassem is only a bad cold, but British imperialism is a cancer," wrote Nasser's favorite journalist. The U.A.R. forthwith sponsored a Security Council resolution urging an immediate British withdrawal from Kuwait. With support only from Russia and Ceylon, the resolution was defeated...
...British, insisting that they were anxious to get out as soon as Kassem dropped his demands, offered their own resolution, which called upon the U.N. to support Kuwait's independence and territorial integrity. The Russians, as always unwilling to see a good quarrel settled, briskly vetoed...
...worrisome to sensitive Kuwaitis as to Britain, was when the task force could safely withdraw. With the border quiet, the British were already scaling down their task force. They were expected to guard the frontier at least until after July 14, third anniversary of Iraq's revolution, when Kassem's next round of oratory may reveal his intentions. If and when they withdraw entirely, the British had shown that they can get back in a hurry if Kuwait needs them...