During the Gulf War in early 1991, many elements of the PLO along with Arafat had supported Iraq. The diplomat isolation resulting from this caused the Soviet Union to scale back support for the PLO. The Soviet Union itself was disbanded in December 1991, a few months after the August Coup that same year. As a result the Palestinian Liberation Organization lost one of its main sponsors. The PLO had also been very sympathetic to the coup plotters, greatly angering Gorbachev and the Soviet leaders. This caused the Soviet government to give up support for the PLO. As a result the PLO began peace talks with Israel in 1991. These events, coupled with the growing Islamist trend in Palestinian society and militancy weakened the pro-Russian Palestinian militant groups, most of whom had taken on a hard Marxist–Leninist line.