Iraq Foreign Relations Kuwait

In the northern desert, where the temperature recently soared to 150--yes, 150--degrees Fahrenheit for four days in a row, U.S. soldiers traded tall tales of poisonous lizards and an afternoon sandstorm obscured a landscape where 155-millimeter guns peeked from camouflage netting. Spc. Allen Scott of the 1st Cavalry's 82nd Field Artillery Regiment contemplated his third tour of duty in Kuwait since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. For U.S.

The Clinton Administration announced military measures Thursday aimed at increasing the readiness of U.S. forces and equipment available for use against Iraq, in response to what the Pentagon called "unusual movements" by Iraqi armed forces, possibly toward Kuwait. Defense Department officials said they were moving equipment--including tanks, ammunition and supplies available for use by Marines and the U.S. Army--closer to the Persian Gulf.

President Saddam Hussein's son Uday has asked parliament to change the map of Iraq on the legislature's emblem to show Kuwait as part of Iraq, a leading newspaper said Monday. Babel newspaper--owned by Uday, a member of parliament--published part of a working paper he submitted to the legislature in November. "Iraq's map that represents the symbol of the assembly does not include the full borders of Iraq as known to the various segments of the Iraqi people, that is Kuwait City," the paper said.

An Iraqi newspaper on Monday threatened Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for abetting U.S. and British airstrikes on Iraq, as Israel and the United States began a Patriot missile exercise reminiscent of the Persian Gulf War. About 11,000 Iraqis marched Monday in the capital, some burning American, British and Israeli flags and carrying banners declaring that "aggression will not scare us and sanctions will not harm us"--the latest in daily rallies since Friday's attack.

Arab foreign ministers tried Sunday to persuade Iraq and Kuwait to agree to a compromise to patch over their dispute, which has long divided the Arab world, ahead of a key summit here this week. But the ministers were unable to reach a deal by the time formal meetings ended Sunday night. If further talks can't resolve the dispute, Arab heads of state will have to tackle it when they meet Tuesday.

Relatives of Kuwaitis killed during Iraq's seven-month occupation remembered their dead Wednesday as Kuwait marked the 10th anniversary of the invasion that still haunts the Gulf Arab states. "I miss my father a lot . . . but at the same time I am very proud of him as he dedicated himself to defend his country," said 16-year-old Dhuha Mouhammad, whose father died during the invasion.

The Clinton administration on Wednesday accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's secret police of torturing and raping the relatives of opposition leaders as part of a continuing pattern of abuses that began with the invasion of Kuwait a decade ago. David Scheffer, U.S.

More than 3,000 stateless Arabs massing on Iraq's border with Kuwait threatened to use force to back their demands to return to the northern Persian Gulf emirate that Baghdad's troops invaded a decade ago. "We have carried the olive branch for 10 years . . . but time passes rapidly with no hope of a solution to our issue and [no] hope for a return to our country and relatives in Kuwait," a memorandum addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

In this city, where memories of Iraqi rapes and executions remain vivid, these are anxious days: Television is offering advice on how to seal rooms from poison-gas attacks, stores are packed with families stockpiling water and other essentials, and desert camps are being set up to cope with an expected tide of war refugees.

Iraq stepped up denunciations of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Sunday as part of an emerging tactic to discredit its two chief critics within the Arab world by portraying them as traitors and U.S. puppets. Foreign Minister Mohammed Said Sahaf said at a news conference in Baghdad that hundreds of strikes against Iraq during December's four-day U.S.-British air campaign were launched from Saudi and Kuwaiti airspace, making the two Arab states full participants in the "aggression."