Clinton was also confronted with problems in Iraq. In 1991, two years before Clinton became president, the United States under President George H. W. Bush participated in the Persian Gulf War to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation. In 1991, the warring parties signed a cease-fire agreement and the United Nations Security Council passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 requiring Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction and allow inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission (UNS-COM) to monitor the country's adherence to the agreement. In addition to UN inspections, to ensure the Iraqi compliance of Resolution 688 which called for Iraq to end its oppression of Iraqi citizens, the no-fly zones over Iraq were established by the U.S. and its allies to protect the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Shiites in southern Iraq from aerial attacks by the Iraqi government.