Iraq War

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Lore & Background

In starting the war, the Iraqi government—led by President Saddam Hussein—primarily wanted to prevent Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's leader following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, from exporting Iran's new state ideology to Iraq. Iraq also feared that Iran, being a theocratic state mostly composed of Shia Muslims, would rally Iraq's Shia majority against the Sunni Muslim-controlled Baʽathist government. Iraq also wished to replace Iran as the main national power in the Persian Gulf. The war followed a long-running history of border disputes between the two states, as a result of which Iraq planned to retake the eastern bank of the Shatt al-Arab river that it had ceded to Iran in the 1975 Algiers Agreement. The conflict involved large-scale trench warfare, and deliberate attacks on civilians, including Iraqi chemical attacks. At the start of the war, Iraq expected a decisive victory, considering Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, but their invasion had stalled by December 1980. The Iranian military then gained momentum, and recaptured all their territory by June 1982. Having pushed Iraqi forces back to the pre-war borders, Iran launched an invasion of Iraq, which created a five-year offensive. In mid-1988, Iraq launched a series of counter-offensives that created the military stalemate present at the war's end.

Reader's Guide

Iraq was aided by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, and most Arab countries. Iran was aided by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, South Yemen, Pakistan, Cuba, and Israel. Meanwhile, Iraqi support for Arab separatists in Iran increased. After years of military and economic losses, decreasing morale, intensifying Iran–U.S. relations, and little international action against Iraqi attacks on Iranian civilians, Iran agreed to a ceasefire with Iraq under United Nations Security Council Resolution 598. The war did not create any permanent border changes, and neither country received war reparations afterwards. Both sides suffered financially. They continued engaging in low-level military conflict until relations improved following Saddam's overthrow in 2003. In 1937, Iran and Iraq signed a treaty to settle their dispute over control of the Shatt al-Arab river; they agreed that Iranian ships had to pay tolls when they used the river. In 1969, Iran broke the treaty, as their ships no longer paid the tolls. The Shah of Iran argued that the treaty had been unfair. Iraq threatened war, but did nothing at this time, as their weaker military became threatened when Iranian naval forces sailed down the Shatt al-Arab in a show of force. The new Iraqi–Iranian tensions led to significant bloodshed, which lasted until the 1975 Algiers Agreement, when Iraq ceded to Iran the eastern bank of the river. Their relations briefly improved in 1978, when Iranian agents in Iraq discovered plans for a pro-Soviet coup d'état against Iraq's government. When informed of this plot, Iraq's president Saddam Hussein ordered the execution of dozens of his army's officers, and expelled Ruhollah Khomeini from Iraq, who led clerical opposition to the Shah.

Did You Know?

• The war caused around 500,000 deaths, making it the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.
• Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian civilians during the conflict.
• The war did not create any permanent border changes, and neither country received war reparations afterwards.
• Iran agreed to a ceasefire under United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 after years of military and economic losses and intensifying Iran–U.S. relations.
• The 1975 Algiers Agreement had ceded the eastern bank of the Shatt al-Arab river to Iran, which Iraq later planned to retake.