General understanding is that the idea of occupying Kuwait was born in 1990 when Kuwait was occupied and annexed to Iraq. However, Iraq’s Baath Party statesmen dreamt about occupying Kuwait or parts of it since they snatched power in 1968. During that 22-year period, they did not relinquish their territorial claims to Kuwait and raised them at any opportunity. Geopolitical constraints constitute the most important problem that Iraq faces in the Persian Gulf. Iraq’s access to the Persian Gulf waters is very limited. Baath Party leaders were aware of this problem and were trying to solve it. They believed that Iran’s Khuzestan province and Kuwait could eliminate Iraq’s geopolitical constraint. Since Iraq had not been able to achieve its goal of dissociating Iran’s Khuzestan province through eight years of war with Iran, when that war was over, Baghdad pursued its second goal; that is, occupation of Kuwait.
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