Word: kuwaiti
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Undoubtedly, the hijackers might have been stopped more quickly had the Kuwaiti plane been resting on an airstrip at Charles de Gaulle or Heathrow. But the feeling of impotence when faced with hijackings and similar acts is inherent to terrorism, no matter where or when it occurs. Those with a rational outlook and profound concern for human life will always be at a disadvantage when forced to bargain with those whose political or religious fanaticism has supplanted a similar taste for decency. In this respect, President Reagan was no better prepared to meet the terrorist challenge in Iran than...
...officials of oil-rich Kuwait, led by Defense Minister Sheik Salem al-Sabah, flew to Moscow last week on a ten-day arms-buying trip. High on the Kuwaiti shopping list were sophisticated SA-8 surface-to-air missiles, as well as shoulder-fired SA-7's, as substitutes for the Stinger anti-aircraft weapons that the Reagan Administration declined to supply last month on the grounds that Congress would veto the deal. The Soviets seemed happy to oblige: the two parties initialed a weapons-purchase agreement, although no details were announced...
...mission to Moscow served as a sharp reminder that the gulf region is the scene of an escalating arms race, partly as a result of the Iran-Iraq war. One of Kuwait's primary concerns is that Iran might launch air attacks against Kuwaiti oil refineries, loading facilities and desalination plants. Other gulf Arab countries have similar fears. As a result, billions of dollars of American, British and French weapons have been flowing into the area. Underlining the climate of uncertainty in the gulf, the British tanker Renown was struck last week by Iranian air-launched missiles. Ironically, Renown...
...Kuwaitis face a major problem in defending their area of the gulf: the Kuwaiti military is as small and eclectic as the country itself. Its scant force of 12,500 untested men is unlikely to be of much help in defending Kuwait's borders if the Iraqi defense crumbles before Iran's long-promised land invasion. In order to bolster their collection of French Mirage jets, British tanks and American antiaircraft missiles, the Kuwaitis recently signed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the French and the British to upgrade their defenses. When the U.S. balked last...
Every evening, during the rounds of diwaniyas, a sort of casual salon of talk and coffee sipping that begins in the late evening, the Kuwaitis ponder their uncertain future. Says one politician: "We fear that Kuwait's freedom will be the victim of these attacks on our tankers." But it is more than just Kuwaiti freedom that is at stake. It is Kuwait itself. -By Richard Stengel. Reported by Barry Hillenbrand/Kuwait and Johanna McGeary/Washington