Excerpts from netnews.talk.politics.mideast: 16-May-93 Re: Saudi clergy   condemns d.. Robertc. Moldenhauer@par (2149)     The whole "saddam is going to invade Saudi Arabia" was nothing but US State    Department propeganda.  Saddam (and Iraq in general) never recognised the    British created Kuwait.    This is complete garbage.   It is Kuwait FAQ number 1 (maintained, but not compiled, by me to rebut the leftist drivel frequently posted wrt Kuwait):   ------------------------------------------------------------   First is a note on the bogus arguments that the British  drew the maps to deprive Iraq of Oil. Then follows a  chronology of events in Kuwait's history.   Following  the chronology is a speech by the Kuwaiti ambassador  to the U.N.. Following this is an article on the origins  of Kuwait. Following this is a series of articles  which attest to the fact that Kuwait was independent of both  (non-existent) Iraq and the Ottoman Empire.   ---   The Iraqi regime claims that Kuwait was cut from Iraq by the British  in order to deprive Iraq of its oil. The 1913 and 1932 border treaties  between Kuwait and Iraq represent clear testimonies against such an  allegation since oil was discovered in Kuwait in 1938!   ---   Kuwait: A Chronology   [BC 600] The Hellens settled in Al-Khazna Hill area on Failaka  Island.   [529] Al-Monzer Bin-Ma'a Al-Sama'a defeated Al-Hareth Al-Kindi in  the Kuwaiti area of Wara.   [300] The Greeks lived on Failaka Island for two centuries.   [73] A royal message was inscribed on the Ikarus stone which is  now on view in the National Museum of Kuwait.   [AD 623] The Arabs defeated the Persians at the battle of Zat  Al-Salassel in the Kazima area.   [1672] The approximate date of the establishment of Kuwait town  when Barrak was the Amir of the Beni Khaled tribe.   [1711] Approximately when the Al-Sabah family arrived in Kuwait.   [1752] The approximate date of the election of Sabah Bin Jaber  from the Al-Sabah family to be the first ruler of Kuwait.   [1760] The first wall, 750 meters long, was built around Kuwait  City.   [1762] Abdulla Bin Sabah, the second ruler of Kuwait, came to  power.   [1765] C. Niebuhr, the Danish traveler, visited Kuwait which he  referred to on his map as ``Grane.''   [1773] Kuwait was attacked by an epidemic  and most of its  inhabitants died.   [1783] The Kuwaitis defeated the tribe of Bani K'ab in the sea  battle of Riqqa.   [1811] The second wall of Kuwait, 2300 meters long, was built.   [1871] The Al-Taba'ah accident, in which many Kuwaiti diving  ships were sunk, was caused by a massive tidal wave between India and  Muscat.   [1886] The first Kuwaiti currency was minted in copper during the  reign of Sheikh Abdulla Al-Sabah II.   [1899] Kuwait signs a treaty with Britain and becomes a protectorate.  (see note below)   [1911] December 22. Al-Mubarakiya School, the first formal  school in Kuwait, opened.   [1920] The third wall of Kuwait, 6400 meters long, was built.   [1921] Kuwait took the first step toward democracy, the formation  of a consultative council, but did not last for long.   [1922] The total number of Kuwaiti pearl diving boats reached  800, manned by over 10,000 sailors and divers.   [1922] The first public library in Kuwait was established.   [1926] The historian Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed published the first  book on Kuwait.   [1928] Kuwait's first periodical, the ``Kuwaiti Magazine,'' was  published by Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed.   [1930] Kuwait Municipality was established.   [1930] An Amiri Decree was issued prohibiting the wearing of the  Bisht because of soaring prices.   [1933] The Municipality installed lighting in the Kuwait market.   [1934] December 7. Heavy rainfall destroyed many Kuwaiti houses.  Therefore this year was called ``The destructive Year,'' ``Al-Sannah  Al-Hadamah.''    [1938] February. Oil was discovered in Burgan oilfield.   [1938] The first general elections, resulted in the first  Legislative Council.   [1942] The first bank in Kuwait was opened.   [1945] ``Kuwait House'' was established in Egypt to look after  Kuwaiti missions and interests.   [1946] The first Kuwaiti crude oil shipment was exported.   [1948] ``Kazima Magazine'' was issued, the first Kuwaiti magazine  to be both printed and published in Kuwait.   [1950] Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who had ruled Kuwait for  thirty years, died.   [1951] May 12. Kuwait Radio went on the air for the first time.   [1952] The first ``Kuwait Masterplan'' was drawn up.   [1954] Khalid Al-Faraj, the man of letters and poet, died.   [1954] December, 11. ``Kuwait Al-Youm'' (Official Gazette) was  issued for the first time.   [1955] Oil was struck in Al-Rawdhatain, north of Kuwait.   [1957] Kuwait wall was demolished and removed.   [1957] The ``Social Affairs Department'' conducted the first  population census.   [1958] December 1. The first issue of ``Al-Arabi'' magazine was  published.   [1960]  The first Kuwaiti woman was employed by Kuwait Oil  Company.   [1961] April 1. The Kuwaiti Dinar became the official currency  in Kuwait.   [1961] June 19. The agrrement of January 23, 1899, concluded  between Kuwait and Great Britain, was terminated.   [1961] July 20. Kuwait became a member of the Arab League.   [1961] December, 31. Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development  was established.   [1962] January 20. The elected constituent assembly met to draw  up the Constitution of Kuwait.   [1962] An Amiri Decree was issued providing for the division of  the country into three governorates.   [1962] November 11. The Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Abdulla Al-Salem  Al-Sabah ratified the first Constitution of Kuwait.   [1963] January. The first elected National Assembly of Kuwait  convened.   [1963] May 17. Kuwait became a member of the United Nations  Organization.   [1963] August 7. The great Kuwaiti poet Saqr Al-Shebaib died.   [1965] November 24. The Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Abdulla Al-Salem  Al-Sabah, passed away.   [1966] The Neutral Zone was partitioned between Kuwait and Saudi  Arabia.   [1966] November 27. Kuwait University was inaugurated.   [1968] May 13. Kuwait freed itself from all external obligations  when it canceled the agreement of June 19, 1961.   [1969] April 1. Central Bank of Kuwait was established.   [1969] October 18. The first communications satellite earth  station in Kuwait was inaugurated.   [1973] July 6. The Kuwaiti pioneer and reformer Sheikh Yousef Bin  Eisa Al-Qina'ai died.   [1975] March. The government acquired full ownership of Kuwait  Oil Company.   [1976] The Social Security Law, applicable to Kuwaiti nationals,  was issued.   [1976] The Future Generations Reserves Law was issued. It  stipulates the allocation of 10\% per annum of the State revenues for  future generations.   [1977] December 31. The Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem  Al-Sabah died.   [1981] May 25. Kuwait signed the Articles of Association of the  Gulf Cooperation Council.   [1983] The Bubiyan Bridge, linking Bubiyan Island to the  mainland, was opened for traffic.   [1985] May 25. The Amir survived an attempt  on his life when a bomb-laden car rammed into his motorcade on Arabian  Gulf Street.     ---From Kuwait, Facts and Figures, 1986.   Shedding Some Light   On September 29 1990, the National Council on US-Arab Relations  invited the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, Saud Nasser  Al-Sabah. The following are quotes of his speech:   ``Kuwait itself was an entity identified as Kuwait even before  Iraq was identified as Iraq in the Ottoman Empire. Kuwait was in  existence since 1752. We continued to be in existence until the  conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the British and others in the  area. Thereafter, we signed with the British in 1899 a protective  agreement whereby the British guaranteed the sovereignty and security  of Kuwait.''   ``In 1913, the British and the Ottoman signed an agreement defining  without any doubt the borders of Kuwait as they stand today. Such an  agreement was reconfirmed in 1932 between the Kuwaiti government  and the Iraqi government at that time. That is when Iraq became a state,  after Kuwait itself.''   ``In 1961, when we declared our independence Iraq seized the  opportunity to claim Kuwait as part of Iraq. There were threats. The  British came in, and Arab forces came in to guarantee the sovereignty  and territorial integrity of Kuwait. In 1963, Kuwait and Iraq again  signed border agreement, thereby defining our territory and Iraq's  recognition to the sovereignty and territory of Kuwait.''   ---Compiled by Firyal Alshalalbi    Origins of Kuwait   The establishment of Kuwait is attributed to Barrak b. Ghurair of the  Bani Khalid who used Kuwait as a summer residence. The beginning of  Kuwait goes back to the late 17th century and some historians go  further up to 1611. Kuwait's name is derived from al-Kut which means  fortress. Kuwait is also called Qurain, which is the diminutive of qarn, a  horn or hill. Kuwait town flourished and grew since its  establishment.   The 'Utub, al-Sabah family is a branch of 'Utub, settled in Kuwait  during the early 18th century. They lived under the protection  of Bani Khalid until 1752. After that, they became independent and  Sabah Bin Jabir was chosen as the first ruler for 'Utub.   Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) a Dutch explorer was among the first who  wrote about the Arabia. He was the mathematician in the scientific  expedition sent in 1760 by the King of Denmark to Arabia. He  documented details of Arab tribes inhabiting both coasts of the Gulf  and in the case of Kuwait, he was the first writer to give the two  names by which the town was known, Kuwait and Qurain. Niebuhr's chart  of the Persian Gulf was the best one drawn before the end of that  century, see the map from Abu Hakima, History of Eastern Arabia  1750-1800. pub.1965.   Al-Sabah ('Utub) kept good relations with other powers in the eastern  Arabia. According to Ahmed Abu Hakima's conclusions in his well  documented study about the history of eastern Arabia between 1750-1800,  there was no Ottoman rule on the region. ``In the second half of  the 18th century, there was no Ottoman ruler in Eastern Arabia.  In fact, Ottoman rule was not even nominally acknowledged. Their  attempts to restore their lost position in al-Hasa through the  campaign of Thuwayni in 1786, and Ali Pasha's expedition against the  Wahhabis in 1798, were unsuccessful. At Kuwait, the nearest point of  the Utbi domains to the Ottoman Mutasallimiyya of Basra, the Shaikh  was under no form of Ottoman control. The aim of 'Utbi external policy  was to keep on friendly relations with all the forces working in the  Gulf.'' (p. 182-183) Abu Hakima continued in his conclusions that ``Kuwait  was not a dependency of Basra, the Persian occupation of Basra  (1775-79) did not affect Kuwait.'' (p.183)   Kuwait had its own identity through the Ottoman domination on the Arab  world. This identity was clear to the British and the French who  tried to win the support of Kuwait's Sheikh between 1793-95 when the  British wanted his support in their conflict with the French in the  Gulf area.   ---   Independent Kuwait   This is the first of a series of articles that testify to the  independence of Kuwait throughout its history from both Iraq and the  Ottomans.   The following text is related to an expedition carried out by the  Ottomans in 1871 against the Wahhabis in Eastern Arabia (where the oil fields  in Saudi Arabia now). Kuwait and its ruler at that time, Sheikh  Abdulla Ibn Sabah Ibn Jabir, allied themselves with the Turks:}   Abdullah' role in the fighting was not a minor one. He joined the  expedition as a commander of the large Kuwaiti fleet and was the first  to use its guns against the besieged town of Al-Qatif. Had it not been  for this bombardment by the Kuwaiti fleet, Al-Qatif obviously would  not have surrendered in a mere three hours.   In relation to this, a question arises as to why the Ottoman warships  refrained from participating in the bombardment. The answer lies in  reports relating to the political movements that preceded accounts of  the progress of the expedition. Because the Ottomans were unwilling to  jeopardize the maritime peace imposed by Britain in the area,  the  Sultan and the Pasha promised their warships would not be used in the  war against Su'ud or any Sheikh in the war zone. Kuwait, which was not  a party  to the above-mentioned treaty of 1861, was under no such  obligation especially since the expedition was not directed against  those who had signed it.    [ From the above text, we can see that Kuwait was not part of the  Ottomans or the British colonies. For more details about the mentioned  expedition, please check out the source of the above text:   The Modern History of Kuwait, 1750--1965, by Ahmed Abu-Hakima, McGill  University, Canada ]   ---   Independent Kuwait--2   This is another article of a series of articles that testify to the  independence of Kuwait throughout its history from both Iraq and the  Ottomans.   The following text discusses a dispute on an estate called Sufiyya in Zubair,  Iraq, between the Sheikh of Kuwait and Al-Zuhair tribe in Zubair.   In 1866, trouble developed over the possession by Sheikh Sabah of the  estate which was [purchased] by his father, Sheikh Jabir, in 1836. This  property was sequestered by a Turkish Qa'immaqam [representative] on  the basis of a claim by the Al-Zuhair that the vendor had been the  owner of a share and not of the n 100e Sufiyya. At the same time,  Sheikh Sabah was required to expel from other lands owned by him at  the island of Fao some cultivators who had immigrated from Persian  territory.   It should be recalled that  the Turkish officials from the start  showed strong prejudice in favor of the Zuhair claimants. Abdulla Ibn  Sabah,  the eldest son of the ruler of Kuwait who went to Basra as his  father's agent in the case,  narrowly escaped being thrown  into jail  upon his refusal to make a payment amounting to the value of seven  years produce which the Ottoman authorities deemed the plaintiffs were  entitled to receive.   Eventually, the dispute was settled by the Wali [Governor] of Baghdad  in favor of the Sheikh of Kuwait. The decision of the Governor of  Basra in favor of the Sheikh was apparently made for various reasons.  Some writers think that the Governor wanted to win Abdulla over to the  Turkish side, and suggest that the Governor, Namiq Pasha, even offered  him the title of Qa'immaqam, which he declined. Nevertheless,  the  proceedings of the Turks in this case were regarded by the inhabitants  of Kuwait as attempts to cause a confrontation with Zubair. It seems  that they had anticipated a conflict and according to reports by the  British Agent at Basra, the people of Kuwait were prepared to a man to  abandon their town rather than submit to Turkish rule. Lorimer suggests  that the final order of Namiq Pasha, upholding the Kuwait Sheikh's  title to Sufiyya, was perhaps due to a report that Sheikh Sabah,  ``with the object of attacking Zubair if the decision should go  against him, had obtained a promise of countenance and armed support  from the Wahhabi Amir.''   In addition to this legal matter with Zubair, Kuwait had had other  problems with Basra whose courts tried to jail Abdulla Ibn Sabah, as  explained above. However, Kuwait's relations with the Ottoman  mutasallims of Basra had at times been amicable and in several  instances, those mutasallims even sought refuge at Kuwait when  pressured by the Pashas of Baghdad who exercised control over them.   [ Source: The Modern History of Kuwait, 1750--1965, by Ahmed Abu-Hakima,  McGill University, Canada ]   ---   Independent Kuwait--3   This is another article that testifies to the  independence of Kuwait throughout its history from both Iraq and the  Ottomans.    When Pelly [Colonel Pelly, the British Resident in the Gulf] visited Kuwait  for the first time on March 3, 1863, he was  met at Jahra by Sheikh Mubarak, the second son of the ruler, Sheikh  Sabah. Just before he reached Kuwait town on March 4, he was met by  Sheikh Abdulla, the eldest son and heir apparent, who accompanied him  to the town gate on their way to ``a very good home,'' which had been  prepared for Pelly and his companions. ``Scarcely had we entered it,''  says Pelly, ``when Sheikh Sabah himself came.''  This description of Pelly's reception indicates that to a certain  degree it was run according to protocol.   The government system of Kuwait and administration of justice were the  subject of comments made by Pelly. ``The Government is patriarchal,''  says Pelly, ``the Sheikh managing the political, and the Cazee [Qadi]  the judicial departments. The Sheikh himself would submit to the  Cazee's decision.'' Punishment was rarely inflicted. ``Indeed, there  seems little government interference anywhere, and little need of an  army.'' Pelly in admiration of how the Sheikh ran the affairs of the  country, retold the following remark which the Sheikh had made to him:   When my father was nearly 120 years old, he called me and said, ``I  shall soon die. I have made no fortune, and can leave you no money,  but I have made many and true friends, grapple them. While other  states around the Gulf have fallen off from injustice or  ill-government, mine has gone on [flourishing]. Hold to my policy, and  though you are surrounded by  desert, and pressed by a once hostile  and still wandering set of tribes, you will prosper.''   [ Source: The Modern History of Kuwait, 1750--1965, by Ahmed Abu-Hakima,  McGill University, Canada ]   ---   Independent Kuwait--4   This is another article that testifies to the  independence of Kuwait throughout its history from both Iraq and the  Ottomans.    The British had always regarded Sheikh Jabir as a ``good friend,'' but  in October 1839, an event took place at Kuwait which could have  weakened those good relations. On October 30, Lieutenant Edmunds, the  Assistant Resident at Abu Shahr [in Iran], arrived in Kuwait on  a  special mission from the Resident, Captain Hennell. His mission was to  find out if Kuwait was willing to welcome the establishment of a  British line of post across the desert from Kuwait to the  Mediterranean. The British war vessel fired the usual salute in honor  of the Sheikh after it had anchored in the waters of Kuwait Bay. The  salute was not acknowledged and Edmunds waited in the vessel for three  days before he was able to communicate with the Sheikh.   After Edmunds' return to Abu Shahr, both he and Captain Hennell  explained this unusual behavior of the Sheikh, to have been due not  to ill-will, but principally to a desire to mislead the Egyptian agent  at Kuwait as to the nature of his relations with the British.  Therefore, they considered that Jabir's conduct did not indicate any  change in his friendly policies towards the British.   If the British tolerated the attitude of Jabir towards Edmunds, so  also did the Egyptians. Earlier in the same year, some of the most  wanted men in the Wahhabi camp, such as 'Umar Ibn 'Ufaisan, the  Wahhabi general  in Al-Hasa, and Wahhabi tribes like Al-Duwaish,  sought refuge in Kuwait.   Protection of refugees seeking political  asylum in his country was a policy that had been adopted earlier by  Sheikh Abdulla Ibn Sabah. This can, therefore, be looked upon as an  indication of self-confidence; an outcome of Kuwait's independence  from foreign powers. It corroborates the fact that Kuwait, if  necessary, was prepared to defend itself against more powerful  neighbors.   This defense depended not only on the walls of the city, but also on  bedouin tribes in its neighborhood and a merchant fleet equipped with  the necessary guns comparable to other Arab fleets of the time.   As to Kuwait's position between 1815 and 1839, one can safely state  that it managed to maintain a neutral policy with regard to the  struggling Wahhabis and Egyptians. Relations with the British  and  even with the Pasha of Baghdad continued on good terms.   [ Source: The Modern History of Kuwait, 1750--1965, by Ahmed Abu-Hakima,  McGill University, Canada ]   ---          They were trying to recover land they believed    was theirs, much like the Argentines in the Faulklands.  The Kuwaitis pushed    just a little too far by taking Iraqi oil and Saddam thought he'd settle    the dispute the old fashioned way...   Are you really this cartoonish?  Or do you seriously believe this?  If so, please post  your proof.     Everybody would have been much better off had they left the reunited Iraq    together and concentrated on taking out Saddam.  A strong, united Iraq with    an elected government would have gone a long way to ridding the world of    the feudal dictatorships in the Gulf.