Tremors From Occupation of Kuwait Are Felt Throughout Persian Gulf Region

Rumbling down the Persian Gulf, shock waves from the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait have left a trail of cut communications, stranded air passengers and nervous governments.

Uncertainty forced banks and financial houses to halt dealings in Kuwaiti dinars. The currency could not buy a meal here in Dubai on Sunday.

“Direct dialing to this destination has been suspended, thank you,” a recorded message told callers to Kuwait and Iraq. Hotel telephone operators delivered the same message.

Shipping officials in Dubai anxiously watched developments at the top of the gulf, fearful of a jump in marine insurance costs.

In Bahrain, farther north on the gulf coast, “there is no panic,” said a diplomat reached by telephone. “People are just going about their work.” Nevertheless, the Bahraini government has so far refused to issue visas to foreign reporters.

“Do you think it’s true?” a white-robed Arab asked Sunday as the report of an Iraqi withdrawal scrolled across a Reuters news printer in a Dubai hotel. None of the four or five men pressed against the printer gave him any assurance.

“Who knows,” one said, “but if it is, they’ll be leaving something behind.”

The withdrawal report came in a radio broadcast about the provisional “free Kuwait government” put in place by the legions of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The leader of the nine-man junta, an unknown colonel named Alaa Hussein Ali, gushed thanks to the Iraqi leader Saturday, addressing him as “O excellency, triumphant president” and “O Arab knight.”

In Cairo, Abdul-Rahman Awadi, minister of state for Cabinet affairs of the legitimate Kuwaiti government, told reporters Saturday that he does not know the man and that his name sounds more Iraqi than Kuwaiti.

In Kuwait, a country of 2 million, more than half of them foreigners, “we all know each other,” Awadi said. “Almost all Kuwaitis belong to one of our big tribes,” the official added, insisting that the junta leader is not among them.

“He’s not on our military lists,” Awadi added.

The provisional regime has called for volunteers for a new Kuwaiti army and, presumably, will try to seek support among disaffected Kuwaitis. The major opposition movement, which seeks more popular say in government, boycotted June elections for a new National Council, a consultative, non-legislative assembly that replaces the Parliament suspended four years ago.

But the boycotters would probably not turn to a puppet junta of Iraq for prospects of democracy.

The shadow of President Hussein’s belligerent secular socialism sends chills through the sheikdoms, sultanates and other nations of the gulf.

With the exception of the Saudi Arabian kingdom, and the cleric-run, crippled giant of Iran across the gulf, these are small countries with big incomes, governed in many aspects like family businesses.

The Sabahs of Kuwait, Thanis of Qatar, Khalifas of Bahrain and the sheiks of the United Arab Emirates, their fortunes buoyed by oil and expatriate expertise, do not want to see their tankers rocked.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, their Saudi-led regional association, on Friday blistered Iraq for the Kuwaiti invasion, 24 hours after the Iraqi troops crossed the border, as “a naked violation of all international laws and norms as well as a violation of Arab and Islamic laws.” The council demanded an immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

In the four days since the invasion, according to the press locally, the president of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi ruler Sheik Zayed ibn Sultan al Nuhayan, has been burning the phone lines with calls to Arab leaders, seeking support for a united anti-Iraqi diplomatic front.

Warning that continued occupation could lead to intervention by unidentified “big powers,” gulf officials clearly fear a conflict that could encourage Hussein’s ambitions, as well as upset business as usual.

The business of the gulf is oil and gas. Sixty percent of the world’s reserves are held by countries along the littoral, including those of Iraq and Iran. The percentage of petroleum sales in export revenues tells the story: Saudi Arabia and Qatar, more than 90%, and Kuwait and the Emirates in the mid-80% range. Bahrain, its reserves diminishing, still earns 70% of its export revenues from petroleum-related products and has made itself a banking and service center for the industry.

Petrodollars have built modern cities where fishing and pearling ports stood half a century ago, enriching the sheiks along the coast and providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers from poor Arab nations.

The white-collar and professional ranks of most gulf countries are peopled with Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Asians do the heavy-lifting jobs.

Import labor flows with the ups and downs of the oil market, but there have been enough good times in recent decades to make remittances sent home by gulf workers important segments of oil-less economies inland.

This has been one of the bad moments, at least in terms of worry. For many in the gulf over the weekend, the pain of the invasion was immediate and personal.

At Dubai International Airport, two Kuwaiti Airways’ Boeing 747s and one 727 sat empty, stalled by the invasion that closed their home airfield. Their 800 passengers from New Delhi, Bombay and Muscat were stuck here on Thursday, the morning of the Iraqi assault.

More than 130 Indian passengers who work in Kuwait were returned Saturday to Bombay aboard the 727, which then returned to Dubai empty. Others were flown to Bahrain and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, aboard Gulf Air planes. And some went on to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, or to New York.

The rest are camped in Emirates hotels, watching the news and waiting for flights. Without immediate hope for reaching their destination are several hundred Kuwaiti citizens.

“We have chosen the UAE because it is close to Kuwait and we feel at home here,” said 65-year-old Tahir Mohammed, who had gone to West Germany for medical treatment and was returning home when his plane was rerouted to Abu Dhabi.

“Now we are facing a financial problem,” Mohammed told a local reporter. We have only Kuwaiti dinars with us, which are now not negotiable in the exchange market. This leaves us with practically no money at all.”