29 August: Baghdad (AP)—In a surprise announcement, Saddam Hussein today stepped down as president of the Republic of Iraq after more than twenty years in power. President Hussein cited personal reasons for the sudden resignation. A Baath Party spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the former president has been in failing health for more than six months. Abdul Aref, Hussein’s prime minister and right hand for the past two years, was sworn in to office within minutes of the resignation. Aref, an unknown to those outside of Iraq’s inner circles, is thought by many Middle Eastern analysts to be the man behind the Islamic fundamentalist movement that has slowly worked its way through Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council over the past year.
04 October: Baghdad (Reuters)—President Aref has announced that the majority Shiites will no longer go voiceless within his nation’s government. While details are not clear, it is widely speculated that Aref has conducted a systematic purging of the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq’s all-powerful decision-making body formerly led by Saddam Hussein. During his first two months in office, Aref is rumored to have removed those Baath Party officials who opposed his more fundamentalist approach to governing Iraq. Additionally, Aref is said to be opening dialogue between his country and Iran. This would be the largest diplomatic step taken between the two nations since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.
07 October: Kuwait City (AP)—Kuwaiti prime minister Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah denounced the latest in a series of troop movements by Iraq along his nation’s northern border in a morning address to the National Assembly. Al-Sabah, who is also the crown prince of the small Gulf nation, says that such actions by Iraq can do nothing but erode an already strained peace.
08 October: Baghdad (London Times)—In an address to the Revolutionary Command Council earlier today, Abdul Aref declared that Kuwait and the other peace-loving nations of the Middle East need not concern themselves with the military maneuvers currently being conducted by Iraq. He reminds everyone that Iraq fulfilled all obligations placed on it by the United Nations as of last year and that his nation is merely conducting the training necessary to sustain a viable defense force.
08 October: Tehran (Christian Science Monitor)—The Iranian parliament has proclaimed a new era of brotherhood with western neighbor Iraq. Tensions have been up and down between these two Middle Eastern powers for decades, but Iraq’s new tolerance toward Islamic fundamentalists has made for the most diplomatic relationship between the two nations in recent history. Exactly what this “new era of brotherhood” means in practical terms is yet to be seen.
10 October: CNN News Desk—President Drake has just announced that the United States will deploy U.S. ground forces to Kuwait in response to a request by the Kuwaiti government. The unit has not yet been identified, but is expected to be on the ground in less than two weeks. The president is quoted as saying that his intention is to stabilize tensions in the area, not escalate them. The president added that such deployments to Kuwait have become commonplace for American military forces since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, with the U.S. having a brigade on the ground almost year-round. The exact length of the deployment is yet to be determined.