Kuwait and the Iran-Iraq War

This file concerns Kuwait’s involvement in the Iran-Iraq War during 1985. It contains correspondence and memoranda on:

• Attack on the ‘Kazimah’ tanker, owned by the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, by an Iranian helicopter in Qatar territorial waters near Halul Island, on 25 December 1985
• Reports on the detention of Kuwaiti bound vessels by the Iranian Navy, including a letter from the Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the President of the UN Security Council stating that on 20 June 1985, the Iranian Navy intercepted the commercial vessel Al Muharraq in international waters, south of the Strait of Hormuz
• Withdrawal of the Kuwaiti regiment’s light tanks stationed at Bubiyan Island
• Iranian press attacks on Kuwait, including reference to Kuwait’s provision of aid to Iraq being a declaration of war on Iran
• Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s meeting with the Kuwait Teachers’ Association in August 1985, where he praised Kuwaiti steadfastness in the face of recent bombings there; and Saddam Hussein’s interview with the owner and editor of Kuwaiti Dailies Al Siyasa and the Arab Times in August 1985, in which he states: it will be impossible for the Iran-Iraq War to end with one side achieving a military victory and that the end of the war will not necessarily bring an end to terrorist acts
• Background information on the sovereignty of the Kuwait Islands [map included]
• Iranian threats against the Gulf States
• Criticism over Britain’s lack of involvement to help find a solution to end the Iran-Iraq War
• Assassination of the Assistant Cultural Counsellor at the Iraqi Embassy Hadi Awad Saeed and his son by four unidentified gunman in March 1985