Soon after becoming the ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah opted to travel to Saudi Arabia during his first official trip abroad. The visit was notable not only because of the choice of destination, but also as it featured the issuing of a joint statement with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud that urged Iraq to comply with land boundaries established in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait.

Additionally, the statement demanded that Baghdad uphold an agreement that regulates navigation in a strategic waterway that separates Kuwaiti islands from Iraq's Al-Faw Peninsula. The move came as tensions between...