ABSTRACT
Iran reaped considerable benefits from the 1990–1991 war in the Gulf. Iraq, Iran’s most dangerous rival in the region, emerged from the war greatly weakened. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 posed a serious threat to Iran’s vital interests. Despite the hopes the Islamic Republic had entertained in the 1980s of seeing a Shiite regime installed at Baghdad, by the time of the Kuwait crisis, Iran’s leaders appear to have concluded that the dangers resulting from the breakup of Iraq would have far outweighed any advantages that might have accrued to Iran. Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani also used the cover of the Gulf crisis to advance the foreign policy aims he had already been pursuing. Rafsanjani’s attempt to reorient Iran’s foreign policy was assisted by the Gulf crisis, but there were limits to his success in the critical areas of Gulf security, relations with Iraq, relations with the United States, and the attraction of foreign investment.
