(US-Saudi coordination regarding developments in Iraq until August 2, 1990)

Abstract

The United States of America has employed its legitimacy on the international system to impose its interests, exploiting its position to gain the support of its Western allies on the one hand, and its ability to use its military power to resolve any conflict in which it decides to participate on the other hand, under the pretext of exercising its responsibilities in maintaining international stability and directing global movement.

The United States of America has relied to a large extent in imposing its policies on superiority in many components and elements of power, such as superiority of military technology, ideological spread, and the breadth of its international diplomatic, economic and social relations, especially with the major Western powers. Therefore, this has been reflected in US-Saudi political relations, as the latter possesses significant economic components represented by oil, in contrast to its political and military weakness.

In any case, it appears that a strike is coming, whether Iraq enters Kuwait or not, because Iraqi and Gulf oil were targeted by the United States. This was a priority of American foreign policy toward Saudi Arabia, as well as the security of Israel and the United States itself. This deepened the obstacle Iraq represented to a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Not to mention that Iraq benefited from the technologies supplied by the United States, Britain, and the Socialist Bloc. It began to develop a small degree of deterrence, which became a threat to the United States' strategy in the region, to the Gulf states, and to Israel.