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[ 263 ] “Sociopolitical Change in the Gulf: A Climate for Terrorism?” was originally published in Crosscurrents in the Gulf: Arab Regional and Global Interests, ed. H. Richard Sindelar III and J. E. Peterson (New York: Routledge, 1988), 110–26. sociopolitical change in the gulf A Climate for Terrorism? In no other region of the world has the onslaught on American life, liberty, and property taken a greater toll in recent years than in the Middle East.1 The region as a whole has become the global hotbed of terrorism. By the end of 1985, the Middle East accounted for 45 percent of the world’s terrorist attacks, some of which originated in the area but were completed in Europe.2 The bulk of terrorist activities within the Middle East have been concentrated in Lebanon and the Gulf region. This essay focuses on the Gulf region, starting with a review of the most serious terrorist incidents since 1983, the majority of which have taken place in Kuwait. As of 1986, four major incidents had shaken up the tiny sheikhdom and its five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This regional grouping has viewed the terrorist attacks in Kuwait as attacks on the security and stability of all its member states. Iraq, on the other hand, has made every effort to implicate the Khomeini regime in all these incidents as part and parcel of its war strategy against Iran. I shall outline briefly the principal facts of each incident as a point of departure for the analysis that follows. The first major terrorist incident in Kuwait took place on December 12, 1983, when simultaneous bombings at the U.S. Embassy, the French Embassy, and other targets killed five and wounded eighty-six persons. As in the truck bombings of the American Marines and the French paratroopers in Lebanon (October 23, 1983), the “Islamic Jihad Organization” claimed responsibility. Quietly, all the GCC regimes blamed Iran, as did Western sources.3 The seventeen Iraqis, out of twenty-five convicted for the crime, all belonged to the Iraqi underground Shii party known as Al-Dawa. The demand for the release of these imprisoned terrorists has triggered other acts of terrorism not only in Kuwait but also in Lebanon, where Shii activists captured both American and French nationals. They have been bargaining chips in efforts to obtain the freedom of fellow Shii detainees and, in some cases, relatives. The second attack verified the dangers confronting a nation choosing to imprison terrorists. On December 4, 1984, a Kuwaiti airliner bound for Karachi (with 155 passengers and 11 crew members) was hijacked by Shii terrorists, [ 264 ] Security in the Persian Gulf taken to Tehran, and held there for six days. Two Americans were killed and several Kuwaitis wounded before the surviving passengers were freed.4 Within a year after the sentencing of the terrorists in the embassy bombings by a Kuwaiti court, other Shii terrorists had abducted six Americans in Lebanon and the Islamic Jihad had made calls to the effect that if their fellow Shia were not released they would execute their captives. Kuwait was again the target of terrorism when an explosives-laden car rammed into the motorcade of the Amir, Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad Al Sabah on May 25, 1985. Two members of the Amiri Guard and a passerby were killed and eleven others wounded. The Islamic Jihad’s spokesman congratulated the Amir on his escape and expressed the hope that the message had been clearly understood. Contacting a foreign news agency in Beirut, the spokesman also warned that a new blow would soon be directed against the “reactionary Arab regimes.”5 The assassination attempt, like the hijacking of the Kuwaiti airliner, seemingly was motivated by the desire to force the release of the seventeen prisoners convicted in Kuwait in exchange for American and French hostages held in Beirut. Apparently this was inferred from two facts: the shadowy Islamic Jihad ’s demand, ten days before the attempted assassination, for the release of the prisoners, and Prime Minister Sheikh Sa‘d al-‘Abdullah Al Sabah’s rejection of the demand immediately after the attack. According to the Kuwaiti daily alAnba ‘, however, the car bomber was a member of the Al-Dawa Party, as had been those convicted for the multiple bombings mentioned above. Generally, “Islamic Jihad” has been considered a cover name for a variety of terrorist groups.6 More importantly, there was a real fear at the time for the welfare of the...

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