Iran–Iraq War

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Since its establishment in 1921, Iraq has had a precarious relationship with its eastern neighbor, Iran. The sources of contention between the two countries involved border demarcation and the desire of both states to prevent the other’s hegemonic aspirations in the Persian Gulf. However, the tensions did not result in armed conflict until Iraqi president Saddam Hussein decided to invade Iran in 1980.

Until the 1970s, both countries had been militarily and economically weak. This mutual weakness sustained a delicate balance that made open conflict undesirable to both sides. However, the rise of Iran as a regional power under Mohammad Reza Shah (1919–1980) in the 1970s undermined this balance. The Algiers Agreement of 1975 resulted in the reversal of a 1937 boundary treaty that had been preferable to Iraq. Iraq agreed to a less favorable border demarcation in exchange for Iran’s withdrawal of support from the Kurdish insurgency in northern Iraq.

The relationship between Iran and Iraq entered a new phase with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. While the revolution severely hampered the military capabilities of Iran, it greatly increased the Iraqi perception of the Iranian threat. Fearful of the destabilizing impact of the Iranian Revolution to his rule, Saddam decided to preemptively strike on September 22, 1980. The immediate goal of the Iraqi invasion was to reverse the terms of the 1975 agreement; the strategic goal was the containment of the “Islamic threat.”

Although Iraq was successful in the initial phases of the war, Iran managed to recover the Iraqi occupied territory by 1982. Yet repeated Iranian attempts to make inroads into Iraqi territory were unsuccessful, and Iraq repeatedly used chemical weapons against Iran. The war continued until 1988, when it became clear to Iran’s clerical leaders that they could not achieve any decisive breakthroughs. A cease-fire was agreed on August 20, 1988, after Iran accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 of 1987. The war resulted in no major border changes.

American policies during the war were driven by the goal of containing the new Iranian regime, which had threatened American hegemony in the Middle East. Consequently, official U.S. neutrality during the war was accompanied by policies that aimed to prevent a complete Iranian victory. The U.S. Navy engaged in skirmishes with Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf, and an Iranian passenger aircraft was shot down by a U.S. cruiser on July 3, 1988. However, at the same time, the United States was covertly supplying arms to Iran in an effort to free U.S. hostages in Lebanon and to finance Nicaraguan guerrillas.

Although the “Islamic threat” was contained, the war resulted in the consolidation of the authoritarian Islamic regime in Iran. With the exception of Libya and Syria, almost all Arab countries tacitly or actively supported Iraq during the war in an effort to thwart the prospect of Iranian hegemony. In the aftermath of the war, however, Iraq emerged as a major regional power with a strong military force, a development that led to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

SEE ALSO Destabilization; Diplomacy; Fundamentalism, Islamic; Hussein, Saddam; Iran-Contra Affair; Iranian Revolution; Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah; Stability, Political; United Nations

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Karsh, Efraim. 1990. Geopolitical Determinism: The Origins of the Iran-Iraq War. Middle East Journal 44 (2): 256–268.

Khadduri, Majid. 1988. The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gunes Murat Tezcur

Iran-Iraq War 1980–88, protracted military conflict between Iran and Iraq. It officially began on Sept. 22, 1980, with an Iraqi land and air invasion of western Iran, although Iraqi spokespersons maintained that Iran had been engaging in artillery attacks on Iraqi towns since Sept. 4. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein claimed as the reason for his attack on Iran a territorial dispute over the Shatt al Arab, a waterway that empties into the Persian Gulf and forms the boundary between Iran and Iraq. In 1975, a militarily weaker Iraq had by treaty signed over to Iran partial control of the waterway, but after the fall (1979) of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi and the resultant weakening of Iran's military, Iraq seized the opportunity to reclaim the Shatt al Arab. Iraq also hoped to seize the western Iranian region of Khuzestan, an area known for its extensive oil fields. The Iraqi offensive was initially successful, capturing the port city of Khorramshahr by the end of 1980. Iranian resistance proved strong, however, and Iraqi troops had withdrawn from the occupied portions of Iran by early 1982. Nevertheless, Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran would not cease fighting until Saddam's regime was toppled. Iran began a series of offensives, which proved successful enough to cause Iraq to resort to the use of chemical weapons (see poison gas ), a tactic reviled by the international community. Iranian troops captured the oil-rich Majnoon Islands from Iraq in Feb., 1984, and southern Iraq's Fao peninsula in early 1986. Sporadic air and missile attacks on cities and military installations were common throughout the war, and in 1985 both sides began to strike their opponent's capital. The United States and several Western European nations became involved in the war in 1987, in response to Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti oil tankers traveling in the Persian Gulf. These attacks sullied Iran's international reputation considerably, making it difficult for Khomeini to obtain arms. Finally, in July, 1988, Iran was forced to accept a United Nations–mandated cease-fire. Estimates of the number of dead range up to 1.5 million. In its war effort, Iran was supported by Syria and Libya, and received much of its weaponry from North Korea and China, as well as from covert arms transactions from the United States. Iraq enjoyed much wider support, both among Arab and Western nations: the Soviet Union was its largest supplier of arms. In 1990 Iraq, concerned with securing its forcible annexation of Kuwait (see Persian Gulf War ), agreed to accept the terms of the 1975 treaty with Iran and withdraw its troops from Iranian territory as well as exchange all prisoners of war. An agreement was not signed, however, and both sides held thousands of POWs for many years. Several prisoner exchanges and releases occurred after 1988; the final exchange took place in 2003.

Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) a major conflict between the two most potent military powers of the Middle East, the long and bloody Iran-Iraq War began on September 22, 1980, with the Iraqi invasion of Iran, then in revolutionary ferment following the overthrow of the Shah. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces met little resistance but soon outran their supply lines. Meanwhile, Iran mobilized to meet the threat, and by May 1982 Saddam Hussein had lost most of his initial gains and ordered a unilateral cease-fire and the withdrawal of Iraqi troops. Iran rejected the cease-fire and launched Operation RAMADAN, the first of several attempts to take the Iraqi port city of Basra, on July 13, 1982. Thereafter the conflict settled into a vicious protracted battle for small territorial gains reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I. The struggle was notable for indiscriminate ballistic missile attacks on cities by both sides and the large-scale use of chemical weapons (primarily by the Iraqis). Both sides also attacked third-country oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Ironically, Iraq was supported by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, both of which would be the target of Saddam Hussein's aggression only a few years later. Revolutionary Iran, having seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran, was estranged from its major supplier of weapons, parts, and ammunition and thus had to rely on mass infantry attacks rather than its once formidable armor and air forces. The end of the war came following a large-scale offensive by Iraq in April 1988. On July 18, 1988, Iran accepted U.N. Resolution 598 which called for an immediate cease-fire, and the war ended two days later when the Iraqi forces ceased operations. The war, which cost perhaps one million dead, half a million maimed, $228 billion in direct expenditures, and over $400 billion in damage to oil facilities and urban areas, produced little gain for either side. The Iraqis did gain control over the key Shatt-al-Arab waterway, but later surrendered it to Iran to ensure Iran's neutrality in the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War.

Iran–Iraq War (1980–8) One of the longest wars of the century, and one the costliest ($350 bn.) and bloodiest (over 500,000 dead and one million wounded) war since World War II. It was fought over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, the confluence of the Eurphrates and Tigris rivers which forms Iraq's only access to the Persian Gulf. Disputed between Iran and Iraq since their existence, in 1975 the Algiers Agreement had given Iran some 518 km² of land along the waterway in return for Iran's cessation of support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq. In 1980, the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, took advantage of the political confusion after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and launched an invasion into Iran. He demanded not only a revision of the Iraq-Iran border, but also the return of three islands in the Straits of Hormuz seized by Iran in 1971, and the granting of autonomy to minorities in Iran. Superior Iraqi equipment gained some initial successes in September 1980 around Abadan, but Iran resisted strongly and in May 1982 counter-attacked, recovering the port of Khorramshahr. The Iranian army even advanced to occupy some Iraqi territory, including the Magdnum and Fao islands in 1984 and 1986 respectively. The war developed into a war of attrition, and eventually both countries, exhausted from the long war, agreed to a cease-fire based on UN Resolution 598, which came into effect on 20 August 1988. It was only when Hussein needed Iranian goodwill to enable him to conduct the Gulf War against Kuwait that he announced his acceptance of the Algiers Agreement, the release of all prisoners of war, and the withdrawal of all Iraqi soldiers from Iranian territory. While no country gained any territory, in some ways it allowed both dictatorial regimes to establish themselves more firmly, by strengthening their respective armies, and by legitimizing the terror which they executed against internal opposition and national minorities.

Kurdistan

Iran–Iraq War (1980–88) A border dispute between IRAN and IRAQ, which developed into a major war. In 1980 President Saddam HUSSEIN of Iraq abrogated the 1975 agreement granting Iran some 518 sq km (200 sq miles) of border area to the north of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway in return for assurances by Iran to cease military assistance to the Kurdish minority in Iraq, which was fighting for independence. Calling for a revision of the agreement to the demarcation of the border along Shatt-al-Arab, a return to Arab ownership of the three islands in the Strait of Hormuz (seized by Iran in 1971), and for the granting of autonomy to minorities inside Iran, the Iraqi army engaged in a border skirmish in a disputed but relatively unimportant area, and followed this by an armoured assault into Iran's vital oil-producing region. The Iraqi offensive met strong Iranian resistance, and Iran recaptured territory from the Iraqis. In 1985 Iraqi planes destroyed a partially constructed nuclear power plant in Bushehr, followed by bombing of civilian targets which in turn led to Iranian shelling of Basra and Baghdad. The war entered a new phase in 1987 when Iran increased hostilities against commercial shipping in and around the Gulf, resulting in naval escorts being sent to the area by the USA and other nations. Senior officers of the Iranian army began to lose confidence as their troops suffered from shortages of arms and equipment, while Iraq continued to be supplied by the West. Early in 1988 the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire. Iraq agreed, but not Iran. Skilful negotiations by the UN Secretary-General, PÉREZ DE CUÉLLAR, however, achieved an armistice in July and a peace settlement in August. Nothing had been gained, but an estimated 1.5 million lives were lost.

Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) Conflict between Iran and Iraq when Iraq, partly in response to Iranian encouragement of revolt among the Shi'ites of s Iraq, invaded Iran, which was disorganized after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iraq's objective was the Shatt al Arab waterway, but stiff Iranian resistance checked the Iraqi advance and forced their withdrawal (1982). The conflict bogged down in stalemate, with sporadic Iranian offensives. US-led intervention in 1987 was seen as tacit support for Iraq. A UN cease-fire resolution (1987) was accepted by Iraq and, after several Iraqi successes, by Iran also. Estimated total casualties were more than 1 million.