How loyalty between Iran and Kuwait gave way to mistrust
When Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, accused Kuwait of being “part of the fire of the wicked” on social media last week, it was apparent that the previously amicable relationship between the two countries had now soured.
“Iran has always adhered to good neighbourliness, but the smoke of ingratitude and the absence of foresight will blind the eyes of the ungrateful,” Baghaei warned.
His comments were a reference to the support Iran lent Kuwait during the Gulf War (1990-91), and were made as American military bases in Kuwait came under fire by Iranian missiles.
Since the start of this year’s aggression, American bases across the Gulf have been targeted by Iran, which has long preferred asymmetrical warfare to direct confrontation, and have been significantly damaged as a result.
Kuwait has denied that the USA has launched strikes from air bases on its territory, and its defence ministry spokesperson described Iran’s actions as “criminal aggression".
Before recent tensions, relations between the two states had been tested over the decades. They took a downward turn when Kuwait aligned itself with Iraq after President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, but became more cordial in the aftermath of the Gulf War.
Iran and Kuwait had long maintained diplomatic, commercial and cultural ties, but Saddam’s war on Iran (1980-88) changed that.
Kuwait provided financial and logistical support for the Iraqi president’s war efforts against Iran, offering billions of dollars in loans, and allowing its port to be used to transport Iraqi weapons and supplies.
"They had concerns about Revolutionary Iran," Dr Alam Saleh, a lecturer at the Australian National University, told Middle East Eye.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Kuwaiti leaders feared that Iran’s new government might gain dominance over the Persian Gulf region.
They also worried that Iran might incite Kuwait's sizeable Shia population to revolt against the Al-Sabah monarchy.
During the 1980s war, Iran was blamed for attacking Kuwaiti oil ships and targeting the US and French embassies, Kuwait International Airport, and the hijacking of Kuwait Airways flights.
“Direct Iranian state responsibility for these attacks has never been conclusively proven,” Saleh observed.
Forever wars
In August 1990, just two years after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam invaded Kuwait, allegedly because the Gulf state was overproducing oil by using American technology to drill in Rumaila, southern Iraq.
This had led to a global slump in oil prices and damaged Iraq’s fragile economy, which was already in debt from war with Iran.
Days before the invasion, Saddam held a meeting with the US Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, who seemingly implied that America would not intervene in Arab regional conflicts. Saddam viewed this as a green light to invade Kuwait, a territory he had previously claimed belonged to Iraq.
America did end up becoming involved, however, and led a coalition of 42 countries to fight by air and on the ground against Saddam’s forces.
The war created a humanitarian crisis, with over a million people in Kuwait fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Iran welcomed thousands of refugees, including foreign nationals who had been working in Kuwait, people who were stateless, and Iraqi nationals.
Mobile camps in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, on the border with Iraq and Kuwait, were set up providing food, shelter and safe passage, and the Iranian government granted political asylum and organised flights for people stranded by the conflict.
UK MPs who visited the camps commended Iran’s efforts to help refugees from Kuwait, according to records from the time.
During a parliamentary debate in 1991, Michael Jopling, then a Conservative MP, observed: “My impression of the camps was that things were going reasonably well.
“The Iranians seemed to be dealing adequately with the massive crisis which confronted them.”
Burning oil wells
Before Iraqi troops were forced to retreat in Kuwait by American-led coalition forces, Saddam commanded them to sabotage key infrastructure, including electrical grids, water systems, civilian buildings, and its oil industry.
Not only did they blow up refineries, storage tanks and pumping stations, but they also dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf, causing an unprecedented environmental disaster and the largest marine oil spill in history.
Furthermore, Iraqi forces deliberately ignited over 600 oil wells in Kuwait, resulting in crude oil leaking out and producing toxic plumes of smoke and black rain that travelled as far as Iran.
"The smoke from the oil wells spread into southwestern Iran, causing air pollution, health concerns, and environmental damage,” Saleh explained.
As a result, Iran assisted with international efforts to extinguish the burning oil wells by sending a team of 47 oil industry experts and engineers to Kuwait, in what was the largest oil firefighting operation in history.
"They had gained extensive experience repairing oil facilities and extinguishing fires during the Iran-Iraq war after repeated Iraqi attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure,” Saleh said.
The Iranian team was assigned to Burgan in the southeast of Kuwait, where the country’s largest and most heavily damaged oil field was located.
After shipping their own machinery and equipment to Kuwait, they successfully managed to cap 28 oil wells, whilst working in dangerous conditions including being surrounded by unexploded Iraqi landmines.
The operation was considered a diplomatic gesture of goodwill by Tehran towards its Gulf neighbour, as both countries now shared a common enemy in Iraq, and it helped to improve relations between them over the subsequent decade.
"Throughout the 1990s Iran and Kuwait expanded diplomatic dialogue, trade and security cooperation while managing their differences pragmatically,” Saleh explained.
US expansion
In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the US began establishing military bases in the region, and over the decades expanded its presence there.
There are 19 US bases across the Middle East today. Kuwait hosts five of them, the largest number of any Middle Eastern country, where 13,500 American troops are stationed.
Some analysts have suggested that America was deliberately luring Iraq to invade Kuwait so that it had a legitimate reason to permanently deploy American troops into the Persian Gulf and control regional oil production.
Iran has always viewed US presence in the Middle East as a threat to its sovereignty and a symbol of imperialism.
"Iran opposes all long-term US military bases in the Persian Gulf, arguing that they undermine regional security, but generally separates this issue from its bilateral relations with Kuwait” according to Saleh.
Kuwait claims it does not use its territory, airspace or waters for offensive operations, contrary to media reports.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Kuwait, along with Bahrain, secretly dispatched military jets to attack drone and missile storage depots in Iran earlier this month.
"Kuwait has served as an important US logistics and command hub,” Saleh said.
“Public evidence suggests its facilities have supported regional military operations.”
Furthermore, President Trump has publicly thanked Kuwait and other Gulf states for backing his war on Iran, which has been viewed as complicity by Iranian analysts such as Hassan Ahmadian, Professor of West Asian Studies at the University of Tehran.
New defence pact
This week, Kuwait ratified a five-year defence pact with Pakistan, the country chosen to act as a mediator in Iran-US negotiations, which has led to some Iranian observers raising concerns that this may complicate Islamabad's position as a negotiating partner.
Kuwait and Pakistan had already signed a defence partnership in 2023, but recent talks have focused on military training as well as sharing personnel, intelligence and technology.
Some analysts have observed that while the pact itself is unremarkable, the timing is not, and that it points to a change in how Kuwait is thinking about regional security, in light of the current war.
“Iran will monitor the agreement but is unlikely to oppose it unless it is used against Iranian interests,” Saleh observed.
“Since Pakistan has also acted as a mediator, Tehran is expected to maintain constructive relations with both countries while closely watching developments in the Persian Gulf.”