ABSTRACT
The Kuwaiti royal family, which ruled a country of around 1 million people in 1990, was thought by Iraqis to control as much as twenty times the amount demanded as loan repayment from Iraq. Iraq accused Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of producing oil beyond national quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries so that Iraq would earn less for its oil. The Iraqi invasion commenced on August 2, 1990, and Kuwait was completely occupied within about twenty-four hours. The new Russian state faced its own extreme economic difficulties and its leaders seemed to have less sympathy for Iraq. United Nations constraints on Iraq's sovereignty were set forth in Security Council Resolution 687, adopted on April 3, 1991. The Iraqi exile community provided a fertile environment for the emergence of groups opposed to Saddam's regime. The United States considered the intervention by Iraqi troops in Kurdistan a violation of the Gulf War cease-fire.
