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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Kuwait
Index
Armed Forces: In 1993 personnel strength 13,700:
army,
9,000 plus 1,000 general staff; navy, 1,200 (including
coast
guard); and air force, 2,500. Matériel of all services
largely
destroyed or captured in Persian Gulf War; being renewed
by
large-scale foreign arms purchases in 1992-93.
Kuwait -- GEOGRAPHY
KUWAIT CAPTURED THE WORLD'S ATTENTION on August 2,
1990, when
Iraqi forces invaded and occupied the country, catalyzing
a
series of events that culminated in military intervention
and
ultimate victory by United States-led coalition forces in
February 1991. In 1993 it appeared that the invasion and
its
aftermath would have a lasting effect on the people, the
economy,
and the politics of Kuwait.
Once a small gulf shaykhdom known locally as a center
for
pearl diving and boat construction, Kuwait came to
international
prominence in the post-World War II era largely because of
its
enormous oil revenues. Yet its history as an autonomous
political
entity is much older, dating back to the eighteenth
century. At
that time, the town of Kuwait was settled by migrants from
central Arabia who arrived at what was then a lightly
populated
fishing village under the suzerainty of the Bani Khalid
tribe of
Arabia. Members of one family, the Al Sabah, have ruled
Kuwait
from that time.
Since 1977 Kuwait has been ruled by Shaykh Jabir al
Ahmad al
Jabir Al Sabah and his designated successor, Shaykh Saad
al Abd
Allah as Salim Al Sabah, the prime minister and crown
prince. In
the postwar period, these men have supported, with some
ambivalence, the strengthening of popular participation in
decision making as provided for in the constitution.
Figure 3. Kuwait, 1993
Kuwait is located at the far northwestern corner of the
Persian Gulf, known locally as the Arabian Gulf
(see
fig. 3). It
is a small state of about 17,818 square kilometers, a
little
smaller than the state of New Jersey. At its most distant
points,
it is about 200 kilometers north to south and 170
kilometers east
to west.
Shaped roughly like a triangle, Kuwait borders the gulf
to
the east, with 195 kilometers of coast. Kuwait includes
within
its territory nine gulf islands, two of which, Bubiyan
(the
largest) and Warbah, are largely uninhabited but
strategically
important. The island of Faylakah, at the mouth of Kuwait
Bay, is
densely inhabited. It is believed to be the outermost
point of
the ancient civilization of Dilmun, which was centered in
what is
present-day Bahrain. Faylakah is the site of an ancient
Greek
temple built by the forces of Alexander the Great.
Kuwait's most
prominent geographic feature is Kuwait Bay, which indents
the
shoreline for about forty kilometers, providing natural
protection for the port of Kuwait and accounting for
nearly onehalf the state's shoreline.
To the south and west, Kuwait shares a long border of
250
kilometers with Saudi Arabia. The boundary between Kuwait
and
Saudi Arabia was set by the Treaty of Al Uqayr in 1922,
which
also established the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone of
5,700
square kilometers. In 1966 Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agreed
to
divide the Neutral Zone; the partitioning agreement making
each
country responsible for administration in its portion was
signed
in December 1969. The resources in the area, since known
as the
Divided Zone, are not affected by the agreement, and the
oil from
onshore and offshore fields continues to be shared equally
between the two countries.
The third side of the triangle is the 240 kilometers of
historically contested border to the north and west that
Kuwait
shares with Iraq. Although the Iraqi government, which had
first
asserted a claim to rule Kuwait in 1938, recognized the
borders
with Kuwait in 1963 (based on agreements made earlier in
the
century), it continued to press Kuwait for control over
Bubiyan
and Warbah islands through the 1960s and 1970s. In August
1990,
Iraq invaded Kuwait and, shortly thereafter, formally
incorporated the entire country into Iraq. Under United
Nations
(UN) Security Council Resolution 687, after the
restoration of
Kuwaiti sovereignty in 1991, a UN commission undertook
formal
demarcation of the borders on the basis of those agreed to
in
1963. The boundary was demarcated in 1992, but Iraq
refuses to
accept the commission's findings.
Kuwait has a desert climate, hot and dry. Rainfall
varies
from seventy-five to 150 millimeters a year across the
country;
actual rainfall has ranged from twenty-five millimeters a
year to
as much as 325 millimeters. In summer, average daily high
temperatures range from 42° C to 46° C; the highest
recorded
temperature is 51.5° C. The summers are relentlessly long,
punctuated mainly by dramatic dust storms in June and July
when
northwesterly winds cover the cities in sand. In late
summer,
which is more humid, there are occasional sharp, brief
thunderstorms. By November summer is over, and colder
winter
weather sets in, dropping temperatures to as low as 3° C
at night;
daytime temperature is in the upper 20s C range. Frost
rarely
occurs; rain is more common and falls mostly in the
spring.
The land was formed in a recent geologic era. In the
south,
limestone rises in a long, north-oriented dome that lies
beneath
the surface. It is within and below this formation that
the
principal oil fields, Kuwait's most important natural
resource,
are located. In the west and north, layers of sand,
gravel, silt,
and clay overlie the limestone to a depth of more than 210
meters. The upper portions of these beds are part of a
mass of
sediment deposited by a great wadi whose most recent
channel was
the Wadi al Batin, the broad shallow valley forming the
western
boundary of the country. On the western side of Ar
Rawdatayn
geological formation, a freshwater aquifer was discovered
in 1960
and became Kuwait's principal water source. The supply is
insufficient to support extensive irrigation, but it is
tapped to
supplement the distilled water supply that fills most of
the
country's needs. The only other exploited aquifer lies in
the
permeable zone in the top of the limestone of the Ash
Shuaybah
field south and east of the city of Kuwait. Unlike water
from the
Ar Rawdatayn aquifer, water from the Ash Shuaybah aquifer
is
brackish. Millions of liters a day of this water are
produced for
commercial and household purposes.
The bulk of the Kuwaiti population lives in the coastal
capital of the city of Kuwait. Smaller populations inhabit
the
nearby city of Al Jahrah, smaller desert and coastal
towns, and,
prior to the Persian Gulf War, some of the several nearby
gulf
islands, notably Faylakah.
Data as of January 1993
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