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Text 385 Prelude to war

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    Before formally putting on his napkin, picking up his knife and fork and starting to carve up the giant cake of the Soviet Union, Qi Yiming still had one thing to complete, which was related to China's competition with the United States for influence and presence in the Middle East, and its role in the world.  Establish your own tactical influence and prestige within the scope.  This thing is the Gulf War

    During the Iran-Iraq war, Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, provided $3 billion in loans and materials to Iraq to support the Arab brother countries in resisting Iran.  However, after the war, Iraq wanted to default on its debt. "The Iran-Iraq war was a holy war between Iran and Iran. It was a fight to resist the export of Iran's Islamic revolution. It was a fight to defend the Arab nation, and it shed blood and sacrifices for it."  . The loans that Iraq owes to Kuwait and other Gulf countries are credits that Iraqis paid for with their blood. Kuwait and other countries should write off these debts in the interest of Arab unity."

    ¡° This kind of reason for jihad is naturally impossible for Kuwait and other countries to give up such large-scale borrowing all at once. Moreover, Iraq is also an oil-producing country, so it is not difficult to save money.  But there is a second problem here. After the Iran-Iraq War, international oil prices underwent a new round of adjustment, falling from US$2 per barrel to US$14.  This suddenly cost Iraq billions of dollars in lost revenue.  Iraq believes that the drop in oil prices is a conspiracy by the Gulf countries and the United States. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries do not comply with the minimum recommended price of 18 US dollars proposed by OPEC and export oil in large quantities. They hope to strangle Iraq and destroy the Iraqi economy in this way.  Base.

    Afterwards, Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz wrote an open letter to Arab League Secretary-General Kalibi, criticizing countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for excessively exporting oil in large quantities, which has harmed Iraq's economic interests, and even targeted its neighbor Kuwait.

    The letter enumerates Kuwait's crimes, including cross-border exploitation of the Rumaila oil field on the Iraq-Kuwait border, with the value of illegally extracted oil reaching 100 million U.S. dollars; in the first year of the Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait also built military facilities on Iraqi territory.  an act of military aggression against Iraq.

    Aziz stated in the letter: "We can only draw this conclusion from this: Whoever blatantly believes in this policy, supports and encourages this policy is an imperialist-Zionist anti-Iraqi and anti-Arab nation.  Part of the executor of the plan, because the timing of the implementation of this policy coincided with the moment when Israel and the imperialists were issuing threats to the Arab world, especially Iraq, which, like all Arab oil-exporting countries, had its main source of income affected by this.  Under such circumstances, how can we cope with this serious threat? How can we maintain the balance of power that Iraq has successfully established during the war?  "What's more, this policy severely damages these countries' ability to solve life-and-death economic and social problems."

    "On the occasion of the Arab nation, what kind of future do the Kuwait and UAE governments intend to dedicate to it? What policies and goals are they working hard for?" Aziz said in an open letter: "The Kuwaiti government is committed to  Iraq committed a double violation. First, it occupied part of Iraq's territory and oil fields and plundered its national wealth, an act that was almost tantamount to military aggression; second, when Iraq became the target of the vicious imperialist-Zionist threat,  It also deliberately suffocates Iraq's economy, an infringement as harmful as military aggression."

    Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is clearly an attempt to inflict a crime.  Iraq has picked this one fault against Kuwait, so it must have evil intentions towards Kuwait.  Sure enough, Iraq then assembled a large army on the border with Kuwait, pretending to take military action at any time.

    Of course, Kuwait is not willing to sit still and wait for death. On the one hand, it strongly refutes all accusations made by Iraq and urgently reports the situation to other Arab countries and the United Nations. On the other hand, it is also preparing its troops to deal with possible conflicts at any time.

    This sudden turmoil has thrown the entire Arab region into chaos. Leaders of various countries have conducted emergency communications many times, hoping to mediate this dispute. Egyptian President Mubarak also frequently shuttles between Iraq and Kuwait, hoping to resolve it through his own mediation.  dispute.  Mubarak made four suggestions: First, stop attacking propaganda and threats of war.  Second, the issue should be limited to the Arab context and should not be internationalized in any form.  Third, the two sides held a meeting in Jeddah involving Egypt and Saudi Arabia.  Fourth, in the process of resolving this dispute, the boundary issue will not be discussed to make the problem easier to solve.

    These political wisdoms are all good advice. If they can be implemented well, they will be extremely helpful in solving problems. Even Saddam made a show of pretending to the outside world and declared to the outside world that he would never use force to solve problems. The two sides just did this in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  came down to negotiate.  At the same time, the Iraqi army retreated from the border. It seemed that the storm was showing signs of subside, which made people wonder.??One breath.

    But no one expected that from July 1st to February 1st, negotiations would be held in Jeddah between Izzah Ibrahim, a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, and Ad Salim Al-Sabah, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Kuwait.  , it¡¯s actually completely different from what people imagined.  Originally, Kuwait was prepared to make some concessions on economic issues in the hope of resolving disputes in exchange for peace. However, at the meeting, Ibrahim not only demanded that Kuwait compensate for its economic losses, but also requested a 99-year lease of Kuwait's Bubiyan Island, and asked Kuwaiti leaders to  Go to Baghdad to plead guilty.

    Naturally, Kuwait could not agree to such a request, which was almost provocative and insulting. However, the two sides still agreed that the next round of talks would be held in the capitals of the two countries.

    In addition to Iraq¡¯s aggressiveness, the attitude of the United States also greatly affects Iraq¡¯s decision-making.  Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the relationship between the United States and Iran has been tense. The United States hopes to support a country in the Middle East that can help the United States contain Iran. This country is Iraq.

    Therefore, when Iraq began to do so many things off-line, the United States not only failed to put pressure on Iraq from a neutral and impartial position, but also did not clearly state its position, condoned Iraq, and made the mistake of saying that the United States would support Iraq.  signal, and it was released many times.

    In January 1933, U.S. President Bush shelved a congressional resolution prohibiting the Export-Import Bank of China from lending to Iraq on the grounds of "national interest."  On February 2, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Middle and Near East Affairs, John T., officially visited Baghdad. In his conversation with Saddam, he said: "You are a moderate force in the region, and the United States hopes to develop relations with Iraq."  He also said the United States was not interested in the border conflict between Iraq and Kuwait.  On February 15, a Voice of America program called Iraq the head of a dictatorship and Saddam Hussein a famous tyrant, and called on the American public to oppose him, saying this was also the view of the U.S. government.  Saddam was furious.  U.S. Secretary of State James Baker immediately ordered the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad April Glasper to apologize to Saddam.

    On February 21, the Bush administration once again opposed a congressional resolution that criticized the human rights situation in Iraq and was detrimental to Iraq. On February 15, Iraq ignored the pleas of the United Kingdom and its allies and executed Farzad, a special correspondent for the British "Observer" newspaper on espionage charges.  Bazoft - On January 2, British customs officers, with the cooperation of the US police, seized a batch of electronic devices at London Airport that were about to be shipped to Iraq.  British police claimed that these devices were detonators for nuclear weapons and arrested six suspects, including two Iraqis.  They were accused of trying to illegally transport nuclear detonators restricted by the UK to Iraq. For this reason, Western propaganda reports from the United States and the United Kingdom vigorously attacked Iraq for trying to obtain advanced technology to produce atomic bombs.

    On April 2, Saddam issued a televised speech emphasizing that Iraq would not accept any external pressure or intimidation in order to safeguard its national sovereignty.  Saddam also unexpectedly announced that although Iraq does not have nuclear weapons, it already possesses advanced binary chemical weapons, and issued a warning to Israel: "I swear to God, if Israel uses any means to attack Iraq, we will be devoured by fire."  Lose half of its territory We will use chemical weapons to exterminate those who threaten us with atomic bombs."

    Bush responded: "I think these speeches are terrible. I will not hesitate to insist that Iraq abandon its intention to use chemical weapons. I think this will not help the Middle East on security issues, nor will it help Iraq."  interests; I would even say that this would be counterproductive, and I suggest that people forget these speeches about the use of chemical and biological weapons." However, this kind of ambiguous and lack of deterrence rhetoric not only did not deter Iraq, but instead regarded it as connivance by the United States.  , so Iraq's ambition and boldness developed in an even more hopeless direction.

    In July, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Glaspie, Assistant Secretary of State John T. and others expressed one idea on different occasions, that is, the United States has no intention of getting involved in conflicts in the Gulf countries.  This series of wrong signals made Saddam finally show his butcher knife and prepare to attack Kuwait.

    Some people also believe that the reason why the United States sent out a series of wrong signals to fuel Saddam's arrogance was to deliberately set a trap for him, so that Saddam would do crazy things, and the United States would then appear as a savior.

    But no matter what, at 2 a.m. Baghdad time on February 2, the Iraqi army mobilized 14 divisions with a total strength of more than 100,000. With the support of the air force and the cooperation of the navy, it invaded Kuwait in a large scale.
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