Word: waterways
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Iraq has its own Kurdish problem, and it was a key cause of the present war. In 1975 the Shah of Iran signed an agreement with Iraq that gave Iran a share of the Shatt al Arab waterway at the head of the gulf in exchange for the Shah's withdrawal of support for Kurds fighting the Baghdad regime. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched his war against Iran in 1980 partly to recover what he had signed away five years earlier. He now has fewer problems with Kurds than Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini does, largely because he created an autonomous...
...Reagan Administration is left with little choice but to restate its policy of keeping the waterway open to international shipping. Five U.S. gunboats are in the gulf, and a task force of seven or eight vessels spearheaded by the carrier Kitty Hawk is in the Arabian Sea not far away. Last week the Administration emphasized that any U.S. military role in the region should be part of a multinational effort...
Halfway around the globe, the largest armies since World War II have inflicted enormous upon each other. The Iranians have amussed estimated 400,000 troops in a front covering Basra. Iraq's second largest city, and the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway. Already, three times as many Iranian soldiers have died in the 43 month conflict that did Americans in the much longer Vietnam...
...country expressed interest in his proposal. But the concern the letter indicated was real. Said Cheysson last week: "If one accepts it [mining] in one part of the world, there is no reason not to accept it in the Strait of Hormuz as well." He was referring to the waterway through which most Persian Gulf oil bound for the West passes. Iran has threatened to mine the strait as part of its war against Iraq; Reagan has pledged to keep the passage open by any means necessary...
Thus, political pressure for ending the war is increasing on both sides of the Shatt al Arab waterway, but probably not quickly enough to prevent the loss of many more lives. Anthony Cordesman, a U.S. scholar specializing in gulf affairs, notes that as the level of engagement has intensified, the unwritten agreement that for two years restricted reciprocal attacks against oil installations has effectively collapsed. "It is a measure of how bad things have become," he says, "that after all these casualties, it is hard to get excited about the use of poison gas. It is just another...