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the Kuwaiti prime minister two months later had publicly declared that
Kuwait would not accept ‘any foreign presence, British or otherwise, in the
area’. Thereafter, however, relations deteriorated, as the Baathists in Baghdad
grew more militant and reckless - and more irritated by Kuwait’s granting of
asylum to their political opponents. Late in 1972 they demanded a large
financial loan from Kuwait. The demand was rejected, and the Baathists
replied by ostentatiously moving troops to the frontier at the beginning of
1973. Negotiations between the two governments followed, culminating in the
presentation of an Iraqi ultimatum, couched in the form of a draft treaty of
friendship and co-operation, to a Kuwaiti delegation in Baghdad in March
1973. The treaty provided for the grant to Iraq of the right ‘to build, operate
and maintain one or more pipelines on Kuwaiti territory extending to a
terminal on the Arabian Gulf; also the right to build, maintain and operate
offices, pumping stations, refineries, depots and tanks for the storing of oil and
water, bridges, harbours, airports and railway lines’ - and all without the
payment of dues. Another article in the treaty gave Iraq the right to ‘enlist the
services of a third party to undertake studies and exploration operations or
implement any part of the project’, and granted this third party the same
facilities and privileges as Iraq was to enjoy.
The site Iraq had in mind for the proposed oil terminal was the deep water
off Bubiyan island, with pipelines running across the island and thence to the
mainland. Obviously, if the concession were to be granted, it would be only a
matter of time before Bubiyan, and the adjoining island of Warbah, became
Iraqi territory. Umm Qasr could then be developed further as a port and naval
base, and its maritime approaches would be wholly under Iraqi jurisdiction.
Iraq’s coastline on the Gulf would be tripled in length, and the extent of
sea-bed to which she was entitled would be greatly enlarged. That these

considerations lay behind the proposed treaty was publicly confirmed by the
Iraqi foreign minister on 4 April 1973, when he stated that Iraq wanted
Bubiyan and Warbah islands so that ‘Iraq would become a Gulf state’. What
was left unsaid was how much Russia would gain as Iraq’s ally from the attain­
ment of this object, especially from her role as the ‘third party’ in the
proposed Kuwait-Iraq treaty, and from the increased usefulness of Umm
Qasr, where, under the treaty of 9 April 1972, she was entitled to enjoy
naval facilities.

The draft treaty of March 1973 was rejected by the Kuwait government,
virtually on sight. On 20 March Iraqi tanks and infantry attacked two Kuwaiti
border posts in the north-eastern corner of the shaikhdom. Small detachments
of troops were also reported to have landed on Warbah and Bubiyan islands.
Saudi Arabia moved troops to the Kuwait border in a gesture of support, and
the Arab League appealed to the two sides to seek an accommodation. Iraq
asserted, against all the evidence to the contrary, that she had never accepted
the frontier delimited fifty years earlier, although she was now ready to