Word: kuwaitis
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Ever since Sir Percy Cox of Great Britain drafted Kuwait's boundaries in 1922, Kuwaiti foreign policy has been in a state of delicate balance. The country has resolutely avoided attachments to any of its more powerful neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, which is separated from Kuwait by a slender, 25-mile finger of Iraq. Notes one Western diplomat: "The only things the Kuwaitis have are diplomacy and money. They either try to talk themselves out of trouble or buy themselves out." During the past six months, the Kuwaitis have been doing a lot of both. Despite...
...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
...Jidda: "They are timid balancers. Their power is in their pocketbooks, not their guns." The Saudis can avoid a clash as long as the Iranians limit their attacks to tankers at sea. If they hit ships in the vicinity of the Saudi port of Ras Tanura or the Kuwaiti port of Mena al Ahmadi, a Saudi or Kuwaiti response might be unavoidable. Even more serious would be an Iranian attack on Saudi or Kuwaiti desalinization or electric power plants...
...tankers in the vicinity of Kharg Island. Both the Greek-owned Esperanza No. 2 and the Iranian-owned Tabriz were set ablaze. The ships were in the area where the Al Ahood, hit a week earlier, was still floundering and in danger of breaking up. Later that day, a Kuwaiti tanker, the Bahrah, was struck by a rocket after being circled by two unidentified planes. One aircraft returned to fire a second rocket, but the ship was able to continue to a Kuwaiti port. The Kuwaiti Cabinet subsequently issued a statement blaming Iran for the attack...