This dyad belongs to the conflict Iran - Iraq
Summary of conflict Iran - Iraq
The relationship between neighbouring Iran and Iraq has often been tense. A dispute over border issues, support to the adversary’s domestic opposition, coupled with regional rivalry, resulted in armed conflict between the two countries in 1974 and from 1980 to 1988. One of the most devastating inter-state wars since World War II ended with an UN-brokered ceasefire and a return to the pre-war borders.
Historical background
The relationship between neighbouring Iran and Iraq has often been tense. In many respects the shifting location of the border between the two countries appears to have expressed changes in their overall balance of power.
As early as in the 1930s Iran and Iraq engaged in clashes over border issues, in particular the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Iraq was at the time sponsored by Great Britain. Owing to British leverage and political weight, a border agreement concluded between Iran and Iraq in 1937 favoured the Iraqi side. It allocated the lion’s share of the disputed territory to Iraq, leaving only the ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr for Iran.
When the Iraqi monarchy was toppled in 1959 and the country was weakened, Iran challenged the allegedly imposed terms of the 1937 agreement and stopped paying tolls on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Baghdad, in turn, abrogated the 1937 treaty and claimed even the waters around the Iranian ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr for Iraq. However, due to internal turmoil Iraq at that time lacked the military strength to challenge the adversary.
Tensions increased again in 1974, due to Iranian support to the Kurdish insurgents fighting the Iraqi government. This resulted in clashes along the border.
1974-1975 Border hostilities and the Algiers agreement
Tensions increased during 1974 and border clashes erupted resulting in more than 25 battle-related deaths. Simultaneously, the Iranian government reportedly increased the level of its arms supply to Kurdish groups that rebelled against the Iraqi government. Facing a looming regional crisis, Algeria and Turkey engaged in mediation efforts. Negotiations culminated in the conclusion of the Algiers agreement signed on 6 March 1975.
Owing to its military superiority at that time, Iran was able to negotiate an agreement that favoured its interests. In particular, the Algiers Agreement marked two concessions by Iraq concerning the border issues. Firstly, Iraq agreed to Irans long-standing demand that the Shatt al-Arab border be set at the thalweg, i.e. the middle of the deepest shipping channel. Secondly, the land borders were returned to the locations before the agreement of 1937, which Iran regarded as imposed by the British. In return for these concessions Iran agreed to cease its support for the Iraqi Kurdish rebels. A Treaty of International Boundaries and Good Neighbourliness was signed in Baghdad on 13 June 1975. Iran and Iraq also agreed upon further details in several agreements concluded in late 1975 and early 1976.
1979-1980 From the Iranian Revolution to the Outbreak of War
The peace agreements of 1975 and 1976 failed to bring lasting peace. In the so-called Iranian revolution of 1979, a Shiite revolutionary regime assumed power in Iran. The revolution changed several internal and external factors for Iraq and prompted the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to invade Iran the following year.
Internally, Iraq feared that the Iranian revolution would lead to instability in Iraq. The majority of Iraqis were Sunni Muslims. However, the country also had a Shiite Muslim minority. With the Shiite Islamist regime in power in Iran, Iraq feared repercussions on its own Shiite minority and a change in the delicate Sunni-Shiite balance in Iraq. Iraq also wanted to revise the terms of the Algiers Agreement that favoured Iran.
Externally, the new Iranian government was opposed by both super powers, the USA and the Soviet Union. Likewise, most countries in the Arab region signalled to Saddam Hussein that an overthrow or weakening of the new Iranian government would not be unwelcome. The Iraqi President thus counted on outside support against Iran.
On the strategic and military level, Saddam Hussein as new and ambitious Iraqi President made no secrets of his ambition to make Iraq the most powerful country in the Arab region. As the Iranian revolutionary regime had not consolidated its power and the Iranian army had been weakened as a result of the revolution, Saddam Hussein calculated that a quick assault could be successful despite Iran’s greater resources.
Based on these calculations, Iraq in 1979 started to demand the revision of the Algiers peace agreement of 1975. An assassination attempt on the Iraqi foreign minister carried out by an Iranian supported Shiite Iraqi group further spurred the rapid deterioration of the Iran-Iraq relationship. Eventually, in September 1980, Iraq launched a massive attack on Iran and the so-called First Gulf War began.
1980-1988 Open warfare
After first border clashes, the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on 17 September 1980 formally abrogated the Algiers Agreement concluded with Iran in 1975. Iraq first said that its goals were limited to the “recovery of complete rights to the Shatt al-Arab waterway and other usurped Iraqi territories and an end to Iranian interference in Iraq’s internal affairs." However, in 1981, both sides stepped up their aims, with Iraq also pledging support to all Iranian nationalities attempting to overthrow the Khomeini government of Iran. Iran, in turn, declared the removal of Saddam Hussein’s government a strategic goal. Tehran also demanded the restoration of the 1975 borders and the payment of 100 billion dollars in war reparations.
The armed conflict started in September 1980 with Iraq launching a massive invasion into Iranian Khuzestan, capturing hundreds of square kilometres of Iranian territory. Iraqi hopes for a quick victory turned sour, however. Iran had stopped the Iraqi offensive by the end of 1980. It rejected a settlement offer and launched a series of counter-offensives starting in January 1981.
Military fortune shifted in favour of Iran and in 1982, the country managed to regain control over Khuzestan. Most Iraqi troops were forced to withdraw from the border. Later the same year, Iran succeeded in pushing far into Iraqi territory. Iraq declared its readiness for a ceasefire several times, but Iran refused. Thus, the war continued.
In the mid-1980s, it appeared that neither side was able to achieve a military breakthrough and the conflict was stalemated with a static, entrenched front running just inside and along Iraqs border. Iran and Iraq embarked on a war of attrition. Both sides also increasingly targeted population centres and oil installations. Starting in 1984, both sides also launched attacks on foreign commercial oil tankers in the Gulf in order to disrupt the other side’s oil trade – the so-called “Tanker War”. Responding to this development the United States and other western countries deployed warships in the Gulf to protect trade.
The conflict was complicated by the internal opposition that both Iran’s and Iraq’s governments faced. The Iraqi Kurds cooperated with Iran against the Iraqi government and a joint attack in 1988 potentially threatened the Iraqi capital. This prompted Saddam Hussein to use chemical weapons in 1988 killing thousands, mostly civilian, Kurds.
During 1987 and 1988, Iran captured some Iraqi territory, but when an Iraqi offensive managed to regain control over the part of southern Iran, the two sides again reached a stalemate. In August 1988, Irans deteriorating economy and recent Iraqi gains on the battlefield compelled it to accept a ceasefire, which was brokered by the United Nations.
However, due to the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, the implementation of all provisions of the ceasefire was delayed until 1990. That year, Iraq and Iran restored diplomatic relations, agreed to the withdrawal from the territory of the adversary, a return to the pre-war borders, i.e. a division of sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, and an exchange of prisoners-of-war. The final exchange of prisoners was not completed until 2003.
