{
  "id": "RL30093",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30093",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 103300,
      "date": "1999-03-17",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:46:05.884941",
      "title": "The Persian Gulf: Issues for U.S. Policy, 1999",
      "summary": "The Persian Gulf region contains both challenges and opportunities for the United States in 1999. \nSince October 1997, the United States and its partners on the United Nations Security Council have\nfaced repeated crises with Iraq over its failure to cooperate with U.N.-mandated disarmament efforts. \n As 1998 ended, U.N. weapons inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM)\nreported that they were unable to perform their disarmament mission. They left Iraq just prior to\na 70 hour U.S./British bombing campaign against Iraqi sites that could be used to reconstitute\nweapons of mass destruction (WMD). The United States termed the bombing campaign (Operation\nDesert Fox) successful in setting back Iraq's missile program and its ability to threaten its neighbors,\nbut this action left the U.N. Security Council divided over how to encourage Iraq to allow UNSCOM\nback into the country. Although hampered in its mission, UNSCOM was viewed by most experts as\nthe most effective means of determining whether or not Iraq is reconstituting banned WMD\nprograms.\n  The prospects for Iran and the United States to end twenty years of hostility have improved\nsince the unexpected election in May 1997 of a relative moderate, Mohammad Khatemi, as President. \nHowever, Khatemi faces opposition internally from those who subscribe to the radical principles of\nthe Islamic revolution. In part because of that internal opposition, a rapid and significant\nimprovement in U.S.-Iran relations has proven elusive. Khatemi has refused a longstanding U.S. offer\nto begin a political dialogue, but he has approved increased people-to-people contacts as a means of\nrebuilding trust between the two countries. Iran's government did not take up a June 1998 offer by\nSecretary of State Madeleine Albright to engage in mutual confidence-building measures with Iran\nthat could provide a \"roadmap\" to normal relations. The Clinton Administration apparently is waiting\nfor the infighting in Tehran to subside before renewing its overtures, although it did, in December\n1998, remove Iran from the list of major drug producing countries. This move was interpreted by\nsome in Congress as a concession to Iran. \n  U.S. efforts to contain the potential threats from Iran and Iraq continue to depend on close\nalliances with the Persian Gulf monarchy states and on continuing political stability there. Facing\ninternal sympathy for the plight of the Iraqi people, some of the Gulf states have begun to grow more\ncautious in their support of U.S. efforts to compel Iraq to comply with all applicable U.N. resolutions. \nSaudi Arabia refused to allow U.S. combat aircraft to fly from Saudi bases to strike Iraq in Operation\nDesert Fox. The Gulf states, faced with low oil prices since 1997, also are worried about potential\npolitical unrest that might result from cutting back the generous social benefits they offer their\ncitizens. To compensate for falling prices, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar are opening their energy\nsectors to increased foreign investment. All the Gulf states are curbing their appetite for new arms\npurchases. Although not under significant pressure to do so, some of the Gulf states continued\ngradual moves to open their political system, in part to spread the burden of difficult political and\neconomic choices.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Energy Policy",
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Middle Eastern Affairs",
    "National Defense"
  ]
}