Before formally putting on his napkin, picking up his knife and fork and starting to carve up the giant cake of the Soviet Union, Qi Yiming had one more thing to complete, which was related to China's competition with the United States for influence and presence in the Middle East, and its role in the world.

Establishing one's own tactical influence and prestige within the scope. This matter is the Gulf War

This public case is actually complicated by various factors. During the Iran-Iraq war, Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, provided $3 billion in loans and materials to Iraq to support the Arab brother countries in resisting Iran. However, the war ended

Later, Iraq wanted to default on its debt, saying, "The Iran-Iraq war was a jihad against Iran, a fight to resist Iran's export of Islamic revolution, and a fight to defend the Arab nation, for which it shed blood and sacrifices."

The loans owed to Kuwait and other Gulf countries are credits earned by Iraqis with their blood, and Kuwait and other countries should write off these debts in one fell swoop in the interest of Arab unity."

Naturally, this kind of reason for jihad cannot make Kuwait and other countries give up such large-scale borrowing all at once. Moreover, Iraq is also an oil-producing country, so it is not difficult to save money. But there is a second problem here. After the Iran-Iraq War,

, the international oil price underwent a new round of adjustment, falling from 2 US dollars per barrel to 14 US dollars. This suddenly caused Iraq to lose billions of dollars in revenue. Iraq believed that the drop in oil prices was a conspiracy by the Gulf countries and the United States. Kuwait

, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries did not abide by the minimum recommended price of 18 US dollars proposed by OPEC and exported oil on a large scale, hoping to strangle Iraq and destroy Iraq's economic foundation.

Later, Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz wrote an open letter to Arab League Secretary-General Khalibi, criticizing countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for excessive exports of oil, which has harmed Iraq's economic interests, and even targeted its neighbor Kuwait.

The letter enumerates Kuwait's crimes, including cross-border exploitation of the Rumaila oil field on the Iraq-Kuwait border, with the value of illegally extracted oil reaching 100 million U.S. dollars; in the first year of the Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait also built military facilities on Iraqi territory.

an act of military aggression against Iraq.

Aziz stated in the letter: "We can only draw this conclusion from this: Whoever blatantly believes in this policy, supports and encourages this policy is an imperialist-Zionist anti-Iraqi and anti-Arab nation.

Part of the executor of the plan, because the timing of the implementation of this policy coincided with the moment when Israel and the imperialists were issuing threats to the Arab world, especially Iraq. Like all Arab oil-exporting countries, Iraq's main source of income was affected by this

How can we deal with this serious threat? How can we maintain a balance of power? Iraq has successfully established this balance of power, but to this end, Iraq stored up its balance of power during the war.

No price can be paid. Furthermore, this policy seriously undermines the ability of these countries to solve life-or-death economic and social problems."

"On the occasion of the Arab nation, what future do the Kuwait and UAE governments intend to dedicate to it? What policies and goals are they working hard for?" Aziz said in an open letter: "The Kuwaiti government is committed to

Iraq committed a double violation. First, it occupied part of Iraq's territory and oil fields and plundered its national wealth, an act that was almost tantamount to military aggression; second, when Iraq became the target of the vicious imperialist-Zionist threat,

It also deliberately suffocates Iraq's economy, an infringement that is as harmful as military aggression."

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is clearly an attempt to incriminate others. Iraq has picked on Kuwait to this point, so it must have evil intentions towards Kuwait. Sure enough, then, on the border with Kuwait, Iraq

Gather an army and act as if you will take military action at any time.

Of course, Kuwait is not willing to sit still and wait for death. On the one hand, it strongly refutes all accusations from Iraq and urgently reports the situation to other Arab countries and the United Nations. On the other hand, it is also preparing its own troops to deal with possible conflicts at any time.

This sudden turmoil has thrown the entire Arab region into chaos. Leaders of various countries have conducted emergency communications many times, hoping to mediate this dispute. Egyptian President Mubarak also frequently shuttles between Iraq and Kuwait, hoping to resolve it through his own mediation.

dispute. Mubarak made four suggestions: First, stop attacking propaganda and threats of war. Second, limit the issue to the Arab context and not make it international in any form. Third, both sides should hold a meeting in Jeddah

There are meetings with the participation of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Fourth, in the process of resolving this dispute, the border issue will not be discussed to make the problem easier to solve.

These political wisdoms are all good advice. If they can be implemented well, they will be extremely helpful in solving problems. Even Saddam made a show of pretending to the outside world and declared to the outside world that he would never use force to solve problems. The two sides just did this in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

came down for negotiations. At the same time, the Iraqi army retreated from the border. It seemed that the storm was showing signs of subside, which made people breathe a sigh of relief.

But no one expected that from July 1st to February 1st, negotiations would be held in Jeddah between Izzah Ibrahim, a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, and Ad Salim Al-Sabah, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Kuwait.

, it is completely different from what people imagined. Originally, Kuwait was prepared to make some concessions on economic issues in order to resolve the dispute and achieve peace. However, Ibrahim not only asked Kuwait to compensate for its economic losses, but also asked to rent Kuwait's Bubiyan.

Island in 1999, and asked Kuwaiti leaders to go to Baghdad to plead guilty.

Naturally, Kuwait could not agree to this request, which was almost provocative and insulting. However, the two sides still agreed to hold the next round of talks in the capitals of the two countries.

In addition to Iraq's aggressiveness, the attitude of the United States has also greatly affected Iraq's decision-making. Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the relationship between the United States and Iran has been tense. The United States hopes to support a country in the Middle East that can help the United States contain Iran.

This country is Iraq.

Therefore, when Iraq began to do so many things off-line, the United States not only failed to put pressure on Iraq from a neutral and impartial position, but also did not clearly state its position, condoned Iraq, and made the mistake of saying that the United States would support Iraq.

signal, and it was sent out many times.

In January 1933, U.S. President Bush shelved the Congressional resolution prohibiting the Export-Import Bank of China from lending to Iraq on the grounds of "national interest." On February 2, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Middle and Near Eastern Affairs, John T., officially visited Baghdad.

In his conversation with Saddam, he said: "You are a moderate force in the region, and the United States hopes to develop relations with Iraq." He also said that the United States is not interested in the border conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. On February 15,

In a Voice of America program, he called Iraq the head of a dictatorship and Saddam Hussein a famous tyrant, and called on the American public to oppose him, saying that this was also the view of the US government. Saddam was furious. US Secretary of State James

Baker immediately ordered the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, April Glasper, to apologize to Saddam.

On February 21, the Bush administration once again opposed a congressional resolution that criticized the human rights situation in Iraq and was unfavorable to Iraq. On February 15, Iraq ignored the pleas of the United Kingdom and its allies and executed Farzad, a special correspondent for the British "Observer" newspaper on espionage charges.

Bazoft - On March 2, British customs officers, in cooperation with the US police, seized a batch of electronic devices at London Airport that were about to be shipped to Iraq. The British police claimed that these devices were detonators for nuclear weapons and arrested 6 people for this.

The suspects, including two Iraqis, were accused of trying to illegally transport nuclear detonators restricted by the UK to Iraq. For this reason, Western propaganda reports from the United States and the United Kingdom vigorously attacked Iraq for trying to obtain advanced technology to produce atomic bombs.

On April 2, Saddam delivered a televised speech emphasizing that Iraq would not accept any external pressure or intimidation in order to safeguard its national sovereignty. Saddam also unexpectedly announced that although Iraq did not have nuclear weapons, it already possessed advanced binary chemical weapons and

This is a warning to Israel: "Swear to God, if Israel uses any means to attack Iraq, we will devour half of its land with fire...For those who threaten us with atomic bombs, we will use chemical weapons to exterminate them."

."

Bush responded: "I think these speeches are terrible. I will not hesitate to insist that Iraq give up its intention to use chemical weapons. I think this will not help the Middle East on security issues, nor will it help Iraq."

interests; I would even say that this would be counterproductive, and I suggest that people forget these speeches about the use of chemical and biological weapons." However, this kind of ambiguous and lack of deterrent rhetoric not only did not deter Iraq, but instead regarded it as the connivance of the United States.

, so Iraq's ambition and boldness developed in an even more hopeless direction.

In July, including U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Glaspie, Assistant Secretary of State John T. and others expressed one idea on different occasions, that is, the United States has no intention to get involved in conflicts in the Gulf countries. This series of wrong signals made Saddam

Finally, he showed his butcher knife and was ready to attack Kuwait.

Some people also believe that the reason why the United States sent out a series of wrong signals to fuel Saddam's arrogance was to deliberately set a trap for him, so that Saddam would do crazy things, and the United States would then appear as a savior.
Chapter completed!