ABSTRACT
By early 1992 Saddam Husayn demonstrated his pragmatic approach to Jordan by allowing the king to join the peace process and improve his relations with the West, in return for Jordanian strategic cooperation and diplomatic support in his campaign to lift the embargo. On the political level, Jordan was very active during the Iran-Iraq War in mediating between Egypt and Iraq. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait exposed what had been concealed by the outward appearance of Jordanian sovereignty and independence: that a de facto Iraqi-Jordanian federation had been forged by the late 1980s, but that this was not a federation between equals. In 1983, a ferry line connecting Egypt's Nuweiba, on the Red Sea, with Aqaba was put into service; in 1987, a joint Iraqi-Jordanian-Egyptian transportation company, al-Jisr al-Arabi began operations, serving passengers and delivering Iraqi cement to Egypt and Egyptian military hard-ware to Iraq via Aqaba.
