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F OREIGN R ELATIONS

During the Iran-Iraq War, the government of Kuwait loaned $10 billion to Iraq. After the war had ended, however, Saddam Hussein said that Kuwait should consider the money a grant rather than a loan. Saddam’s argument was that Iraq had protected Kuwait and the other Arab nations by fighting with Iran—an assertion that failed to convince many in the Arab world. Kuwait’s refusal to write off the debt was one of the reasons Iraq invaded the country in August 1990. Even after coalition forces liberated Kuwait, Iraq was not required to repay the money, and the issue remained a source of friction between the two countries. Another issue surrounds the disappearance of several hundred Kuwaiti citizens during Iraq’s cruel seven-month-long occupation of its southern neighbor. Until its demise Saddam Hussein’s govern- ment denied it knew anything about these 600 or more missing Kuwaitis. After the Gulf War, the two Arab countries attempted to improve their frayed relations. In November 1994, Iraq gave up its claim to Kuwait and to the Bubiyan and Warbah islands when it formally accepted borders established by the United Nations. And in March 2002, Iraq signed an agreement with Kuwait in which it promised to respect the country’s sovereignty. This agreement, negotiated through the diplomatic efforts of Qatar and Oman, occurred at an Arab League summit in Lebanon. Iraq’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has also undergone many changes. In the early 1970s, Iraq’s leaders sometimes spoke out against the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. But in the years before Saddam Hussein seized total power, he began to cultivate a better relationship with the Saudis. Crown Prince Fahd, who would later become king of Saudi Arabia, visited Saddam in Baghdad; Saddam paid a return visit to Fahd in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, the following year. When Saddam became president of Iraq, the Saudi govern- ment supported him, and when Iraq started its war against Iran in