The Egyptian position on Iraq's claim to Kuwait in 1961

Abstract

The research aims to shed light on the Egyptian attitude towards the Iraqi-Kuwaiti crisis that occurred in June 1961 AD, and which emerged after the statement of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim in the press conference held on the twenty-fifth of June 1961 AD. In which he demanded full sovereignty over Kuwaiti territory, which led to a political crisis between Iraq and Kuwait that had a major impact on the international and regional levels, and Egypt played a major role in containing the crisis and preventing the widening of the dispute between the two countries.

In terms of its scholarly contribution, the study offers an analytical perspective on Egypt's experience in managing a sensitive Arab crisis. This model can be adopted to understand how Arab nationalist regimes dealt with conflicts of dual dimensions: the unity of peoples versus the independence of states. Furthermore, the study enriches the literature on Arab-Arab relations by highlighting Egypt's approach to reconciling principle with pragmatism.

In light of the above, it can be argued that Egypt's role in the 1961 Kuwait crisis was not merely a reaction, but a strategic positioning that maintained a minimum level of Arab equilibrium and paved the way for a qualitative shift in the concept of sovereignty within the Arab system at that time. The crisis persisted until the assassination of Abdul Karim Qasim on February 8, 1963—despite Arab and international opposition to Iraq's annexation of Kuwait—in which Egypt played a significant and crucial role, thus bringing to a close one of the most severe political crises to confront the modern Arab system.