After stops in Helsinki and Moscow to smooth out Iraqi demands for a Middle-Eastern peace conference with the Soviet Union , Baker traveled to Syria to discuss its role in the crisis with its President Hafez Assad . Assad had a deep personal enmity towards Saddam , which was defined by the fact that " Saddam had been trying to kill him Assad for years . " Harboring this animosity and being impressed with Baker 's diplomatic initiative to visit Damascus ( relations had been severed since the 1983 bombing of US Marine barracks in Beirut ) , Assad agreed to pledge up to 100,000 Syrian troops to the coalition effort . This was a vital step in ensuring Arab states were represented in the coalition . In exchange , Washington gave Syrian dictator President Hafez al-Assad the green light to wipe out forces in opposition to Syria 's rule in Lebanon and arranged for weapons valued at a billion dollars to be provided to Syria , mostly through Gulf states . In exchange for Iran 's support for the US-led intervention , the US government promised the Iranian government to end US opposition to World Bank loans to Iran . On the day before the ground invasion began , the World Bank gave Iran the first loan of $ 250m
1983 bombing of US Marine barracks
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Gulf War