The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 353
The Gulf Crisis & The New World Order Saudis are not the traditional rulers of Mecca; the Saudis drove out the Hashemites. The Saudi family is further disliked because it has not used the country's oil wealth to benefit the people, who have no say in how the country is ruled. Dissent is ruthlessly and brutally suppressed. In 1953, lbn Saud died. His son and heir, Saud, tried to break the agreement with Aramco in favour of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Under strong American pressure, Saud was prevented from kicking out Aramco. In 1964 he was deposed in favour of his brother Faisal. After the Second World War, Iran had a democratic government led by Mohammed Mossadegh, who nationalii. ed Iranian oil production. A CIA organii. ed coup in 1953 overthrew Mossadegh and installed the Shah in power. U. S Pledges to Fight for Oil U. S President Jimmy Carter's doctrine (1980) was the pledge to use U. S troops to keep the Saudi royal family in power and to intervene in the Gulf to protect what it considered "our" oil. There was no threat to Saudi Arabia from either Iraq or Iran at the time, so it was clear that the U. S government was pledged to protect the Saudi royal family from overthrow by its own citirens. Carter also pledged to intervene if U. S. oil companies were threatened with loss of control over oil production in the Gulf. Iran-Iraq War In the eight-year Iran-Iraq war (September, 1980 to August, 1988), Iraq was supported by the Gulf states and the U. S. , who saw Iraq as opposing the spread of militant Islamic movements into the Arab countries. Once the war was fought to a stalemate, after more than a million people were killed, its former sponsors perceived Iraq as a treat. . . . . . Kuwait and the smaller Gulf states overproduced their alloted OPEC quotas to keep the oli price down and maintain pressure on Iraq. Kuwait is also alleged to have pumped oil from a large oil field which straddles the Kuwait-Iraq border. " (/his article was sponsored by the Winnipeg (Canada) Co-ordinating Committee for Disarmamellt) 353