The Iraqi government described it as a form of economic warfare, which it claimed was aggravated by Kuwait slant-drilling across the border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field.

Jordan and Iraq both looked for more discipline, with little success. Resulting revenues struggled to support the government's basic costs, let alone repair Iraq's damaged infrastructure. The result was a slump in the oil price – as low as $10 per barrel ($63/m3) – with a resulting loss of $7 billion a year to Iraq, equal to its 1989 balance of payments deficit. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait were consistently overproducing the latter at least in part to repair losses caused by Iranian attacks in the Iran–Iraq War and to pay for the losses of an economic scandal. In order for the cartel to maintain its desired price of $18 per barrel, discipline was required. Iraq also accused Kuwait of exceeding its OPEC quotas for oil production. Kuwait rejected Iraqi attempts to secure further provisions in the region.Īlleged economic warfare and slant drilling

The UK drew the border between Kuwait and Iraq in 1922, making Iraq almost entirely landlocked. Kuwait's ruling dynasty, the al-Sabah family, had concluded a protectorate agreement in 1899 that assigned responsibility for Kuwait's foreign affairs to the United Kingdom. Kuwait had been a part of the Ottoman Empire's province of Basra, something that Iraq claimed made Kuwait rightful Iraqi territory. The Iraq–Kuwait dispute also involved Iraqi claims to Kuwaiti territory. Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts, but they refused. Iraq's debts to Kuwait amounted to $14 billion. Most of its debt was owed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled Abu Nidal to Syria at the US's request in November 1983, the Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet Saddam as a special envoy and to cultivate ties.īy the time the ceasefire with Iran was signed in August 1988, Iraq was heavily debt-ridden and tensions within society were rising.

With Iraq's newfound success in the war, and the Iranian rebuff of a peace offer in July, arms sales to Iraq reached a record spike in 1982. The United States remained officially neutral after Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980, which became the Iran–Iraq War, although it provided resources, political support, and some 'non-military' aircraft to Iraq.

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