Word: kuwait
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...more disturbing assessment, calling the threat of some Iranian response "quite high." This prompted House Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin to complain that the Administration clearly had not figured out what it was getting into. There are suspicions that Iran has set up mines in the waters of Kuwait's primary oil port at Al-Ahmadi. Should a ship hit one of them, said Aspin, it would be "something on which there are no Iranian fingerprints." Thus the U.S. would be less able to retaliate. Another threat is the Chinese-made Silkworm missiles that Iran is deploying along...
...tanker war in the Persian Gulf has been raging for almost four years, during which time the world has seen the greatest oil glut and sharpest price collapse in history. The Administration wants to protect Kuwaiti oil not because the West needs to buy Kuwaiti oil, but because Kuwait needs to sell...
Under North's deadline pressure, Hakim worked out a nine-point plan that included a promise that the U.S. would deliver 500 TOW missiles to the Iranians and pursue the release of 17 Shi'ite Muslim terrorists being held in Kuwait in return for one or two American captives. Hakim, following Secord's recommendations, went as far as to commit the U.S. to fighting the Soviets if they invaded Iran, and he pledged U.S. assistance in efforts to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Secord and North approved Hakim's arrangement. Four days before the election, Hostage David Jacobsen was freed...
While Iran has so far refrained from firing on American vessels in the gulf, Tehran vowed to continue shooting at Kuwaiti tankers, regardless of the flag they fly. Since September the Iranians have attacked 29 ships in the gulf, 25 of them serving Kuwait. In a meeting with foreign journalists, the President denied that he was "daring" the Khomeini regime to open fire. But when asked how the U.S. would react, Reagan replied, "I think it's far better if the Iranians go to bed every night wondering what we might do than us telling them in advance...
...officially avoided taking sides in the 6 1/2-year-old war between Iran and Iraq. In 1984 the warring nations began attacking each other's oil shipments and, inevitably, hitting tankers from third countries in the region. Iran's favorite targets have been ships going to and from Kuwait, an ally of Iraq. The U.S. now publicly blames Iran for prolonging the war. Despite its botched arms-for-hostages deal with Iran, the Administration has been urging other countries to cut off military shipments to that nation, and last week it requested that the Soviet Union put similar pressure on East bloc...