03 August 1990 : President Saddam becomes the first Arab ruler in modern history to send his army, unprovoked, into another Arab country, overthrow its government and install a puppet regime

The United States and the Soviet Union, acting together for the first time in a major international crisis, moved simultaneously to isolate Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait yesterday.



Washington imposed an oil and trade ban and moved a carrier group to the Gulf while Moscow, Iraq’s main arms supplier, suspended all deliveries.

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Scattered resistance continued last night in the capital, Kuwait City, as the US Secretary of State, James Baker, prepared to fly to Moscow from Mongolia. The American and Soviet governments are expected to issue a joint statement today condemning Iraq’s President, Saddam Hussein.

Iraq responded to Washington’s move by announcing that it would freeze debt repayments to the US.

France, formerly a close ally of Baghdad, followed the American lead by freezing Iraqi and Kuwaiti assets, while Britain announced that it would freeze Kuwaiti assets only.

Mrs Thatcher, on a visit to Colorado, called in a joint press conference with President Bush for an international effort to end Iraq’s ‘intolerable’ invasion. She said it would be ‘totally unacceptable if it were allowed to endure’.

The UN Security Council demanded an immediate withdrawal of Iraqi troops. In Brussels, a Nato official said the aim of sanctions was ‘to cripple Iraq totally, chiefly by refusing to buy any of their oil’.

The Arab world looked on yesterday in seemingly impotent dismay as President Saddam became the first Arab ruler in modern history to send his army, unprovoked, into another Arab country, overthrow its government and install a puppet regime.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Responding to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, troops of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division deploy across the Saudi desert, November, 1990. Photograph: Greg English/AP

Gulf leaders are to gather in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, today for an emergency meeting called by Kuwait to consider a co-ordinated response.

A meeting in Cairo of the Arab League Council yesterday failed to condemn the invasion, but will meet again today. It agreed that a further Arab summit would be held at the weekend, probably in Cairo. The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and King Hussein of Jordan met in Alexandria yesterday and spoke to Arab and Western leaders. Syria put its army on alert.

The deposed Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Crown Prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah, struck a defiant note after Iraq’s vastly superior army overwhelmed the Kuwaitis in a lightning invasion that had Iraqi tanks patrolling the capital within hours. In a broadcast from a secret location last night, he tried to rally the nation by vowing to fight the Iraqis ‘until we clean their treachery from our land’. Kuwait’s ambassador in Washington appealed for international military action.

The Emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, fled to Saudi Arabia in a helicopter, but his younger brother, Fahd, died defending the royal palace, which was strafed by Iraqi jets. One of the Emir’s daughters was reported to have been seized.

Several American nationals working on oil platforms in Kuwaiti waters were detained during the invasion, a State Department official confirmed last night. He said the US was investigating the detentions as a matter of urgency, but it did not know where the workers were, or how many were involved.

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The ‘Provisional Free Government of Kuwait’ announced over Baghdad Radio yesterday that it was in full control. Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council, in a statement apparently aimed at Washington, said that President Saddam would turn Kuwait into ‘a graveyard for anyone who tried to commit aggression or was moved by the lust of invasion’.

The warning came as a naval battle group, spearheaded by an aircraft carrier, the USS Independence, and up to 14 other American warships, moved towards the Gulf. President Bush, however, last night ruled out American military intervention for the time being.

In Kuwait, the provisional government described itself as composed of Kuwait’s ‘revolutionary youth’. Its members are unknown and it is widely assumed that they do not exist.

Its announcement said that it had ‘overthrown the tyrants’ the Emir and the Prime Minister and that ‘all their stooges’ had been deposed and the parliament dissolved. It would secure stability and then hold ‘free and honest elections’.

The provisional government said it had appealed to the ‘noble Arab knight Saddam Hussein’ and his countrymen for help. They had responded nobly.

It would ‘work to address the issue of borders and relations with beloved Iraq on the basis of brotherhood and the supreme Arab interest’.

The announcement accused the ruling family of squandering Kuwait’s wealth, despotic rule, co-operating with foreigners, rigging elections and oppressing the people. Iraq said later that all the Emir’s funds would be confsicated.

Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, trucks full of troops, fuel and water tankers of 100,000-strong force crossed Kuwait’s borders at 2 am and trundled over sand and scrub towards Kuwait City.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Guardian, 3 August 1990.

Aircraft and artillery bombarded the international airport, port and military airport. Helicopter-borne troops seized two key air bases where personnel surrendered without a fight.



The invaders ran into the stiffest resistance from Kuwait’s hopelessly outnumbered, out-gunned, 20,000-strong army in the centre of the city, especially as they closed in on the royal palace. Diplomats said about 200 soldiers were killed or wounded, mainly from the republican guard.

The Iraqis took control of the palace after two hours of heavy artillery barrages. Fifty tanks were surrounding it and the nearby American Embassy last night. The British Embassy was hit by shell fire.

The official Kuwaiti radio and television went off the air when the invaders entered the city, but a mobile broadcasting unit, outside the occupied areas, continued to broadcast martial music and patriotic songs late into the day.

One of its speakers was the Crown Prince, who called on Kuwaitis to resist the Iraqis ‘until we clear their treachery from our land’.

‘Our valiant brothers will rebuff the aggression. Our Arab brothers are with us. Our Moslem brothers are with us.’

There was little sign of Arab assistance. The nearest thing to condemnation came in a statement from Kuwait’s allies in the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council: ‘How can Arab blood be shed by Arab hands. How can an Arab country occupy an Arab country.’

In Baghdad, motorists hooted their horns and flashed their lights to celebrate the news of their army’s second invasion of a neighbouring country in a decade.