A secret 1983 intelligence report has confirmed that America's distaste for the Assad family in Syria has always revolved around pipeline disputes — and this alone has given the U.S. cause to go to war with Syria.

Most disturbingly, the report revealed that the United States urged Saddam Hussein to attack Hafez al-Assad in Syria because of the closure of Iraq's oil pipeline.

The report by former senior CIA official Graham Fuller urged the U.S. to consider "urging Iraq to take the war to Syria," noting Saddam was "fighting for his life" in the Iran-Iraq campaign. The closure of the Iraq pipeline was seen to have a "hammerlock" on U.S. interests in the region.

Fuller said the U.S. should consider "sharply escalating the pressures against Assad" from three border states hostile to Syria – Iraq, Israel, and Turkey. The report claimed that faced with these "three belligerent fronts," Assad would probably be forced to abandon his closure of the pipeline.