During the first six months of 1990, world oil prices fell by about a quarter, from twenty-two dollars a barrel to less than seventeen dollars, crippling all of the Middle East’s oil-dependent governments. Kuwait and other producers pumped out more oil to make up for the lost revenue per barrel, but this additional supply put further downward pressure on prices. In public, Saddam now regularly accused both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of conspiring against Iraq through their overproduction of oil.
