India and the Gulf War
Iraq claimed that Kuwait has been under the Ottoman Empire as a district of Basra, and that since Iraq is the successor of the empire, Kuwait naturally becomes a part of Iraq. Before , Iraq had attempted to incorporate Kuwait into Iraq on at least two air diffuser. The first occurred in the late s when King Ghazi of Iraq made demands to unify Kuwait with Iraq. But that demand soon died down when King Ghazi mysteriously died in an accident onApril. The second occasion occurred inwhen Britain and Kuwait formally terminated their relationship under the treaty of January .Iraq under General Abdul Karim Qasim again made an attempt to incorporate Kuwait into Iraq. OnJuly the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the problem. Under fan coil unit, Articleof the United Nations, both Iraq and Kuwait submitted their complaint to the UN. The UN Security Council, however, could neither diffuse the crisis nor pass any resolution due to the use of its veto by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union went along with the Iraqi view and stated that, “The Security Council's most immediate task in this situation is to condemn the actions of the colonial power and to take measures which lead to the immediate withdrawal of United Kingdom troops from Kuwait.” In the absence of any proper agreements in the UN, the Arab League stepped in and came up with an alternative solution to the fan coils. It accepted Kuwait's independence and vowed to defend Kuwait against any external threats or aggression. Iraq, however never really accepted Kuwait's independence.With the passage of time, the dispute simmered down. The outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War almost completely overshadowed the Kuwait-Iraq issue and the matter was laid to an uneasy rest during the war. Although several meetings were held between Kuwait and Iraq, the matter could not be settled and it continued untilAugust,when the dispute took a completely new turn.