- The longest 20th century war- War triggered by Ethical/ Religious/

Economic/ AND Territorial Conflict

Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)

Iran - Khomeini

Iraq – Saddam Hussein

Rising of the new leaders

When? September 22nd, 1980 ~ 1988 Where? Areas near the border of Iran and Iraq.

(First on Iran's territory, later on Iraq's territory as well)

Who? Iraq and Iran, led by Saddam Hussein and Khomeini respectively,

What? almost 9 years of total/ conventional war (for both sides)

Why (immediate cause)? In September 1980, border skirmishes erupted in the central sector near Qasr-e Shirin, with an exchange of artillery fire by both sides. And on September 22nd of the same year, Iraq invaded Tehran with their air forces, MiG-23s and MiG-21s.

Brief Introduction

This war led to Gulf War of 1991, which was also started from Iraqi aggression

This was fought between two of the largest oil exporters

Explains why the number of allies were so large/ The war was internationally important

Used CW and BW Iraq widely used these, whereas Iran allegedly used them

What is special about Iran-Iraq War?

- Watch out these points in my presenta-tion

Use of Air force was also very significant Iraqi MiG-23s/ MiG-21s, Iranian F-14s and Scud

(Missiles) which were used first by Iraq, and later also by Iran, to bomb each other’s territory

High economic losses for both sides + countries involved

Civilian involvement & impact was hugeResulted from a variety of long/short-term Causes

The war was ended with the help of UN (Iran accepting UN’s Security Council Resolution

598, leading to a 20 August 1988 cease-fire.)

•Please look at the notes !!!

•WAR WAS THE RESULT OF….

•Long-term, Short-term, Immediate Causes

•Economic, Social, Religious, Ideological, Politi-cal and many other causes

Causes

Economic/ military: significance of Shatt-al-Arab connected Per-sian Gulf with the Iranian port of Khorramshahr and Abadan

Religious: Most Iraqi population belived in Sunnis Islam, whereas most Ianian population believed in Shiis Islam. Sunnis and Shiis Is-lam were split since 661, when the founder of Islam, Caliph was as-sassined.

Ethnical: Resentment existed between Arabians and Persians since Arabians invaded Persians centuries ago.

Persians could not form a consolidated country for almost 800 years

Political: 1961~1975, Iraq focused on the suppression of Kurish re-bellions, which led them to accept…

Algiers Agreement of 1975

Long-term

Political: 1) Rise of the two ambitious leaders – Khomeini and

Saddam Hussein 2) Islamic revolution of 1979 caused confusion in Iran

Diplomatic: 1) “Iran hostage crisis” bad relationship with the U.S. 2) Persecution of communists in Iran bad relationship

with USSR

Military: Persecution of key military commanders in Pahlavi

Shah’s regime

Short-term

Economic: Islamic revolution in Iran industries were suffering and export of petroleum de-

creased because of the bad relationship w/ the U.S.

Religious: 1) Islamic revolution in Iran also affected Shiis population &

even Kuridish people in Iraq. Many of them fought on the Iranian side in the war.

2) Khomeini insulted Saddam Hussein, by saying that his regime is “anti-Islamic”

More short-term…

On September 22nd, 1980 Iraq invaded Tehran with MiG-23s and MiG-21s

Immediate…

Khomeini and Saddam Hussein

The most significant cause?

Land forces – tanks/ CW&BW/ ar-tilleries near the border lines

HOWEVER…. Air force was most significant

Nature

Iraqi air forces invaded Iran without officially declare war on Iran

Saddam Hussein thought that with the element of surprise, they can easily win the war Because….

Planning of the war

MiG-23s (picture below) & MiG-21s

Beginning of the war and Iraqi Air forces

Counter attack of Iranian air forces – “F-14s”

Allies

These Scud Missiles were launched against Iranian/ Iraqi civilians.

Impact on civilians – A “Scud War”

Iraq first used Chemical weapons when Iran started counter attacking

Many attributed the use of CW in Iran-Iraq war as the lenient interna-tional policy regarding CW&BW

CW and BW

Ali Hassan al-Majid was the minister of National Defense at that time, and he was the one who approved the use of CW

Many Iraqi soldiers used CW in the borderline b/w Iran and Iraq

Iraqi Chemical Weapons

1) US and USSR both supported

2) Islam supported Iraq, whose popu-lation is mainly Arabians.

Two ironical facts

Civilians – many civilians died from bombing or as voluntary soldiers

Casualties – Iran acknowledged that nearly 300,000 people died in the war Iraq suffered an estimated 375,000 casualties. Another

60,000 were taken prisoner by the Iranians.

Economic – Both sides had huge economic impact (Iraq’s bad economy Gulf war 1991)

Political: regimes of both Iraq and Iran did not change much after this war. However, the war made both regimes op-pressed…

Effects

The war stopped when Iran accepted UN Security council Resolution 598, leading to a 20 August 1988 cease-fire.

Thus, the war in a sense no winner, and both countries suffered from the war.

How did the war end?

Iran-Iraq war caused an enormous ecomomic, military and social problems to both Iran and Iraq.

for both fronts it was a TOTAL WAR

Limited or Total?

Each student must say 3 similarities/ differences between Iran-Iraq war and wars listed below

World War I: Gulf War of 1991(Anthony’s war): 6 day war (Laurence’s war): Korean war (Jimmy war):

Compare&Contrast with other conven-tional/ proxy wars

For more info. Please visit my wiki!!!

THANK YOU!

Books: a) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

b) Geopolitical Determinism: The Origins of the Iran-Iraq War by Efraim Karsh c) The Social Origins of the Iran-Iraq War by Thom Workman (Ph.D Candidate in

Department of Political Science in York University)d) Success in World History Since 1945 by Jack Watsone) Challenge to Civilization: a history of the 20th century (1952-1999) by Martin Gilbert

Websites: 1) http://course1.winona.edu/aelafandi/polsci270/iran-iraq-war.htm

2) http://www.iranchamber.com/history/iran_iraq_war/iran_iraq_war1.php3)http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_iraniraq.html4) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/iran-iraq.htm5) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/iraniraq.html6) http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/iraniraq.htm

My Sources…