Iran-Iraq War

The causes

The two countries dispute the Shatt al-Arab, a border waterway of the Persian Gulf, whose course has been disputed for decades. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 overthrows the Shah and alarms Baghdad, ruled by the Baath party. The Iraqi regime hopes to take advantage of Iran's weakening after the revolution: it invades the country on 22 September 1980.

The context is marked by the Algiers Accord of 1975, signed by the Shah of Iran and by Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi vice-president. It fixed the border along the middle of the Shatt al-Arab channel, in exchange for an end to Iranian support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq. When the Shah was overthrown in 1979, Iraq, where the Shiite population was in the majority, feared a revolutionary contagion from Tehran. Saddam Hussein became president in July 1979 and sidelined his rivals within the Baath Party. On 17 September 1980, Baghdad officially denounced the Algiers Accord: this was the immediate trigger for the invasion, launched a few days later.

The course of the war

Iraqi troops advance into Iran in 1980, but their offensive bogs down. In 1982, Iran retakes Khorramshahr, a strategic port, then carries the war onto Iraqi soil. The front then freezes into trench warfare, with very deadly assaults reminiscent of the First World War.

In 1984, the "tanker war" spreads to the Persian Gulf: both countries attack each other's ships and oil installations, and third countries are hit. Between 1985 and 1988, the "war of the cities" sees missiles strike Baghdad and Tehran. UN Security Council Resolution 598, adopted in 1987, lays the groundwork for a ceasefire. Iran accepts it in July 1988, and the ceasefire takes effect on 20 August 1988.

Iraq first advanced into Iranian territory, notably in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, before its offensive came to a halt. In June 1982, its forces withdrew from most of the occupied Iranian territories and Baghdad proposed a ceasefire. Tehran refused: Iran demanded the departure of Saddam Hussein and reparations, and continued its offensive into Iraq. Iraq used chemical weapons several times against Iranian troops during the 1980s, and chemical weapons also struck the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988.

The two states benefited from contrasting external support. The Gulf monarchies, worried by the Iranian revolution, largely financed Iraq's war effort, and France delivered Mirage F1 aircraft and Exocet missiles to Baghdad. The USSR armed Iraq, while Syria and Libya supported Iran. The United States restored diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1984; the Iran-Contra affair, revealed in 1986, also showed that they had sold weapons to Tehran. On the Iranian side, mobilisation relied in part on the Basij, a volunteer militia born after the revolution, which took part in the assaults.

The war was also fought at sea. In May 1987, an Iraqi missile hit the American frigate Stark, causing casualties among its crew. The United States then escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers in the Gulf, as part of Operation Earnest Will, and naval clashes pitted the two sides against each other. In July 1988, an American cruiser mistakenly shot down an Iranian civilian Airbus, flight 655, over the Strait of Hormuz. Khomeini accepted the ceasefire in July 1988, a decision he compared to drinking from a poisoned chalice.

The consequences

Both countries emerge exhausted and in debt, and the ceasefire does not settle the core of the dispute. Iraq, heavily indebted after the war, invades Kuwait in 1990. The human and material losses weigh lastingly on both societies.

The conflict left lasting traces: wounded veterans, destroyed towns and an Iranian economy weakened, which weighed on reconstruction. In Iran, the official memory describes the war as a "Sacred Defence", and many monuments commemorate its fighters. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein's regime drew part of its legitimacy from the war, but the debt resulting from it later fed the conflict with Kuwait. Historians still debate responsibility for the outbreak of the war, the effect of the initial invasion on its duration, and the role of international backers.

Timeline

1. 1980Saddam Hussein's Iraq invades Iran
2. 1982Iran retakes Khorramshahr and carries the war into Iraq
3. 1984The "tanker war" spreads to the Persian Gulf
4. 1988Ceasefire under UN auspices

Key figures

• Saddam Hussein, Iraqi president who launches the invasion of Iran in 1980
• Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution
• Ali Khamenei, Iranian president during the war, future Supreme Leader