Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Gulf War, through the pages of Gulf News

The Kuwaiti army was no match for the numerically superior, battle-hardened Iraqi forces. Apart from constituting criminal aggression against a fellow Arab state, the military action was a strategic blunder of extreme proportions that cost Iraq, and the region, dearly.

Tensions were sky-high in the Gulf region with people bracing for the worse. Kuwaiti Crown Prince Saad Abdullah Al Sabah, speaking on Kuwaiti TV being broadcast from Saudi Arabia, told Kuwaitis: “Let [the Iraqi occupation forces] taste the chalice of death.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Fahad Bin Abdul Aziz, along with Kuwait’s government-in-exile, sought the help of the United States and other Nato powers to free Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation.

On August 10, Arab leaders agreed to send Arab troops to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq. Egypt’s then president Hosni Mubarak, a vociferous critic of the Iraqi invasion, sounded the alarm for the Arabs. “The picture is black and horrifying,” Mubarak said at a press conference in Cairo. “Unless we reverse the situation, war is inevitable."

US President Bush's stance was clear; in a letter to Saddam Hussein, he wrote: “Unless you withdraw from Kuwait completely and without condition, you will lose more than Kuwait. What is at issue here is not the future of Kuwait - it will be free, its government restored - but rather the future of Iraq. This choice is yours to make.”

The UAE agreed to the deployment of Arab and multinational forces on its soil in its attempt to help Kuwait gain freedom from Iraqi occupation.

Signs of potential confrontation appeared when different countries refused Iraqi directives to close their embassies inside occupied Kuwait.

By August 25, 1990, a multinational armada with colossal firepower was in the Gulf to enforce the UN-mandated trade embargo against Iraq.

At this stage, September 3, 1990, the UAE still voiced its hopes for a peaceful solution that involved Iraqi troops pulling out of Kuwait completely.

On September 25, the UN Security Council adopted a stringent air embargo against Iraq and occupied Kuwait, barring all commercial and passenger aircraft except humanitarian flights.

On November 29, the UN issued a dire warning to Iraq: Withdraw by January 15, 1991 or face a massive attack by multinational forces.

True to form, the regime of Saddam Hussein ignored international opinion.

On January 9, 1991, US Secretary of State James Baker said he had failed to persuade Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait during his meeting in Geneva with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.

On January 12, 1991, the US Congress voted to give President Bush the green light to use American troops to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.

On January 16, UN Secretary General Perez De Cuellar urged Iraq for the last time to withdraw from Kuwait and prevent a devastating war. His appeals fell on deaf ears.

On January 17, war was launched. Thus began the US-led multinational military campaign that eventually flushed Saddam’s troops out of Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.