Iran-Iraq War

Iraq: oil was disovered in the 20th century at the iran iraq border.
Britian wanted because all their ships were running on oil, making that area a vital resource
When ww1 broke out ottoman empire took germanys side- britain enemy
Britain invaded and got three provinces of O.E under thier control-Basra baghdad and mosul which
now makes up modern iraq and kuwait
Treaty of versailles-iraq was now seen as a mandate of britain.
Opposed by arab nationalists , rebellion came up against britain. Bratin crushed it but realised they
needed needed to set up an arab govt so invited faisal, sharif hussein of mecca ka better, to become
the king of iraq
British still had control of foreign policy, 2 air bases, iraq petroleum company(which they built, owned
drilled and sold oil to others)
Considerable economic development, but arabs still resented the superiority of the british
Inspired by arab nationalists, they overthrew the govt in 1958 and established repulic
Baath party gained support in 60s and they believed in arab nationalism but indepence of foreign
policy,
1968, baath seized power in coup-established a one party and extended party control to the people
but emphasis on army
1972 iraq nationalised oil- could now join oil boycott of the west In 73

Saddam Hussein
1970s, gained popularity and rose to the top from the baath.had to set up iraqs social welfare system
and organise control over the army and miliatry.
Set up a police state which used repression to increase power of baath.
Overthrew president and made himself in 1979.
Executed officials he thought were disloyal and set up a cult of personality( show the people of iraq he
was a good person and leader through many ways) so that the people of iraq were loyal.
Protests in the shia muslim community were crushed in karbala and najaf.
Baath including saddam were predominantly sunni and eventhough iraq is mostly shia, they try to
incorporate sunnis everywhere especially in imp positions like saddam appointed cousins
So now saddam feared that shia muslims might overthrow him and form repressive policies against
their leaders

Iran
Constitutional monarchy in 1906.
Elected parliament(majlis) and power of shah was limited
Britain had informal conteol over most of iran and and controlled their oil resources-Anglo-Iranian
Company
1951 nationalist prime minister mohammad mossadeq was appointed and he wanted to nationalise
the oil resources that were under british control
Alarmed americans because they felt increase of soviet control will result in loss of oil policies and the
west needs oil so have to keep M.E
Using CIA, britain and america overthrew president and appointed shah in 1953
Iran now pro american camp and under shah joined baghdad pact and cento military alliances
1973 iran did not join oil bycott and continued selling oil to the west and israel
Nixon doctrine in 76 to support regional alliances in asia by provding economical and miliatry aid so
that they don’t get influenced by communist power and the usa doesnt need to get directly involved
Under doctrine, shah was policeman of the gulf. Iran became the second best miliatrised country due
to america selling them equipment
However shah faced opposition due to his corrupt rule
Despite presdient carter personally giving praise to the shah for his role and love from his people,
shah was overthrow in revolution and fled abroad in jan 1979

Iranian revolution
After period of turmoil, Ayotella Khomeini became supreme leader in a new politicial system where
leaders eclipsed In authority(became more imp) by religious authorities
Revolutionaire critcised USA for the support it gave to the Shah.
When shah was given asylum in USA, people in iran seized control of the US embassy in Tehran, the
capital, and held many of its personnel hostage
1980 america tried to get the hostages back but helicopter ran into dust s torm and 2 were disabled,
third crashed in refuelling tanker so mission was aborted
When people found out, khomeini popularity increased ecause he credited divine intervention
Moderate iranian revolutionary leaders were sidelined and eventually lost power
Revolution controlled by islamic leaders and was now known as the islamic revolution, khomeini
called for one throughout the islamic world
President carter lost prestige and popularity and lost election

Iran-iraq war
Sept 1980- saddam decided to invade iran as they were weak due to thier problems
Iran and iraq were having border issues ever since iraqs dependence
1975 - both signed an agreement stating that Iraq had given up claims to some territory on the east
bank of the Shatt-al-Arab channel. - In return Iran had agreed to not allow Kurdish rebels, who were
fighting for independence in northern Iraq to cross the borders.
Saddam publicly tore this treaty in sept 1980
Reasons iraq attacked:
1) He hoped to gain access of areas that would give iraq greater access to the sea ports as well as
more oil rich territory in south west iran.
2) Also claimed irans khuzestan province as it had a majority of arabs
3)More imp they wanted to replace iran as the second most powerful M.E country
4)When saddam crushed shia protests in 1979, khomeini publicly criticised him giving saddam more
reason to attack iran so that shias did not get any revolutionary ideas. He accused iran of adding ideas
in iraq and causing trouble
5)Saddam Hussein felt that a short victorious war would also bolster his reputation and help
consolidate his power in Iraq. (Saddam called it a ‘whirlwind war’.)
It was also the best time because iran- facing boycott of west due to protests and holding americans
hostage in embassy, had many muslims govts mad at them for calling them for a revolution(iran is
majorly shia and other govts didn’t want shias in their countries to get an idea). Many senior officials
had left because they were supporters of the Shah so militarily it was weak and economically wasn’t
great as well

Duration of war:
Iraqi evasion was succesful but after capturing a great deal of territory the advance stopped and they
were forced back into their own border
Iraq had massive weaponery due to support from soviet and french but iran had a massive population
So they recruited a lot of young people and launched massed human wave attacks against the iraqis
War moved to another phase when iraq started launching missiles and bombing irani cities to terrorise
population
Iran retaliated the same way
Calls for ceasefire were rejected because now iran said they wont stop until saddam was overthrown
By 1984, the world was also burdened by this warfare
Iraq had also started to use nuclear weapons on iran troops then iranian civilians and also on kurdish
poplation which was in iraq, but there was a growing opposition against saddam
Iraq also started attacking Iranian oil tankers and oil rigs and then
expanded the war by buying neutral oil tankers from iran
Iraq lost its port so relied on neighbouring countries, especially
kuwait, in exporting their oil through the country’s tankers.
Saddam hoped this war would cause international intereference
especially from america

Foreign Involvement
This dragged on the war.
Eventhough now iran was winning, iraq was giving high technology
weapons from ussr and france and iran relied on old weapons
However, irans weapons were getting destroyed and to get more they
needed to buy from global market or through middlemen
Countries like china were willing to sell but they werent of the same
quality and quantity as iraq
Iran’s call for revolution worried muslim countries with a shia
minority like saudia arabia,kuwait and bahrain
Iran now under a islamic revolutionary government threatened to take
saudia arabias place as the head of the pan islamic movement.
As a result saudia arabia and its gulf allies supported iraq.
They also used iran being a majorly shia country to discredit their
call of revolution and its claim to be the leader of global islam.
This increased division of shia and sunni
Now that iraq had its own supporters, they helped iraq financially
through loans and helped iraq export its oil through pipelines in
kuwait. Egypt and usa(majorly) supported
Syria was the only country who didn’t as relations between the two
were poor eventhough they had baathist govt. In the 80s iran agreed
to give syria oil If they closed their pipeline that pumped iraqi oil
for export

American support:
Reasons for american support in iraq:
Iran revolution and hostage crisis angered usa. They also left cento
weakening their miliatry alliance.
Iran was also a threat to their regional arab alliances and if saddam
hussein was overthrown and replaced with a pro iranian govt then iran
would have influence over a major share of global oil exports and
after the oil boycott, america had to make sure no one had too much
control over the oil.
Iran revolutionary rhetoric was also threatning to usa as they did
get support from lebanon and other muslim countries.
Once iran started winning, usa established friendly relations with
iraq again and supported by providing military compononents used to
manafacture weapons such as chemical weapons.
Usa also made sure that they and the UN turned a blind eye to iraq
using weapons of mass destruction against the iranians as it was
illegal under international law
They even provided satellite data on iranian troops and their
formation so iraqis knew where to exactly launch chemical attacks

US intervention and the tanker war

As iraqi attacked through tankers, iran used their superior navy to
block iraq
They also insisted that all ships in the gulf would be stopped and
searched and those that didn’t would be destroyed
Meaning that iraqi oil that was being exported through other
countries, espeically kuwait, were in foreign ships that were
attacked mainly by gulf states
Usa and ussr helped by registering those ships as theirs
When iranian continued to attack,usa sent a fleet to the persian gulf
and said that all foreign ships would also be protected except ones
taking iran ka oil
Iraq started launching attacks on those ships lowering irans oil
exports
But usa was still threatened by irans threat to attack ships of their
allies so they personally attacked irans oil rigs and naval ships
Americans also shot an iranian civilian airliner mistaking him for a
jet fighter.

End of the war:

Growing iraqi support meant that they were able to stall iranian
offensives and the attack on irans oil by usa meant that they coudnt
iraqs oil.
Iranians alxo realised that eventually iraq wil find a way to
incorporate chemical weapons with long range missiles to attack
iranian cities
International pressure came to both sides to agree to ceasefire
Syrian tried to convince iran for a negotiation due to the increasing
polarisation of the sects.
An Islamic Conference was called in January 1987 in which 44
countries called on both sides to accept a ceasefire. Iran was
becoming increasingly isolated. - With its economy in ruins,
diplomatically isolated, and with no victory in sight, Iran finally
accepted a UN-mediated ceasefire in 1988. - A final Peace Treaty was
signed in 1990. Saddam re-recognized the 1975 treaty he had torn up
in 1980.

The Gulf War

Iraq 1988-1990
After iran iraq war, iraq was in utter shit. 100 billion in
debt(foreign), a million soldiers had died and the society wsa under
strain due to all the demands of war.economy was shit and internal
disatisfaction was hidden by secret police.
Even then saddam continued to build up the army, eventhough public
felt that after war would mean peace.
Kurds opposition increased in the north, as iran had supported them
during the war. Saddam instead used chemical weapons on the kurdish
society killing thousands, they also drove them out of their houses
and bulldozed villages
Kuwait:
During ottoman times, this was a small port at the southern end.
Sheikh signed treaty for british ships to harbour and in return
sheikh would get a little independence from ottomans
After ww1, british made kuwait a seperate country, iraq left with
little coastline. Iraq govt then declared that kuwait was a part of
them and sent thier troops to occupy their borders posts but arab
league sent their army forces to make sure theres no iraqi takeover
During iraq iran war, kuwait was a strong supporter of iraq, helped
them export oil and provided loans and all, but after war they
demanded iraq pay back 14 billion in loans
Saddam pissed because they think that by winning they saved countries
like kuwait from iran and their revolution and had sacrificed a lot
doing so, he least kuwait could do was write the loans off.
Oil prices also dropped in 1990s and saddam blamed kuwait and uae for
overproducing oil which was bad iraq because that was their only
large export. Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, said 1$ drop in US oil barrel,
means a billion dollar loss for iraq in revenues, may cause economic crisis in baghdad
Saddam also accused kuwait of slant drilling causing oil to come out that should
belong to iraq.

Invasion of Kuwait 1990:

Talks between iraq and kuwait deadlocked and so iraq starting forming an army on
their border
At that time arab countries and usa thought that iraq was only doing this for kuwait
to back down and they wont actually cause a war
Talks between iraqs usa ambassador and iraqi officials: iraqis asked their opinion on
this kuwait dilemma and ambassador said that they didn’t have any opinion but they
also didn’t war an economic war against iraq. Saddam took this as the green light to
attack kuwait
2nd august 1990 iraq invaded and captured kuwait in 3 days.
First he was setting a puppet govt(affairs and actual authority Is excercised by
another power eventhough the country has outward symbols of power). however
since the foreign powers had critcised saddam and un resolutions said to withdraw,
saddam got pissed and declared the annexation of kuwait.
UNSC agreed to complete trade sanctions in iraq-which is the most effective
sanctions un ca impose
In order to get symoathy and support, saddam agreed to withdraw if israel withdrew
from gaza and the west bank which got him support from palestinians
However international communities were still strongly against him, even countries
that had supported him before like france and india condemned it. Ussr and china
placed arms embargo. Iraq was also isolated

US reaction:
Knowing that saddam could go further and invade saudia, usa sent their troops to
defend it and saudi king in fear also requested them.
At the same time diplomacy by the US and its Arab allies was mobilised to get
countries from around the world to help defend the Gulf states.
- Gradually military forces were built up and a coalition of different countries sent
military forces including Britain, France, Syria and Egypt.
Un sent deadline of 15th jan 1991 for iraq to withdraw, they didn’t, usa and a
coalition of 34 states went to war

Gulf War jan-march 1991

Iraqi forces dug into the kuwait border using a trench warfare tactic that helped
them win in iraq iran war, but unlike iran at that time, the coalition had a well
equipped and massive air force
On the 15th only, coalition entered with an aerial attack, bombing iraqi forces and
infrastructure for a few weeks
Saddam still tried to gain sympathy and look like the victim against western forces
but having arab states in that coalition weakened his accusation
Saddam launched missiles in israel in hoped that they would retaliate so that he
could say that his arab enemies in the coalitiion like syria,saudis were allies of israel
but us used diplomatic pressure to make sure israel did not attack
Command and control were destroyed and they were pulverised in the air- causing
slow movement from troops and iraq was now blind to future attacks in this war

Ceasefire:
By march coalition drove iraq back into thier border and had control on their
southern parts but stopped at baghdad
Un resolution only specifed on liberation of kuwait not overthrowing saddam
Cease fire imposed peace talks started
Us president, bush in the meantime was calling iraqis to stand up revolt and
overthrow saddam, hoping that iraqi officials who were unhappy with saddams rule
might overthrow him in a coup, but officials feared a popular revolt more
Instead kurds from the north and shiites from south stood up in revolt but under the
noses of the coalition the officials crushed their uprisings
Media coverage of iraqis homes and civilains killed and destroyed by iraqi officials
caused coalition to decalre no fly zones on the north and south and a safe haven was
made for kurds in the north who ever since have been effectively in control of the
north
Nothing like that for shiites in the south, making them feel betrayed by bush

Why did USA go to war

Eventhough thw war was fought through a coalition, usa played a key role militarly
and diplomatically
- major reason was strategic: ever since oil boycott of 1973, usa made sure that no
one had too much control of the world oil’s supply(self interest)
Saddam is seen as a expansionist and he wouldve continued to invade and control
more countries if not stopped
Cold war just ended and americans felt that USAs power was now unconstrained and
should be demonstrate leadership globally. “New World Order” talks- usa should
work with other countries and UN and help secure peace and stability in the world
UN now rejuvenated after cold war can focus more on collective security and
appoint USA as global policeman.
Feeling that usa needed to prove to the world and its own that thelack of will and
and legacy of defeat after vietnam is gone and a win in another war can help bury
the ghosts of vietnam
To prove they were better gulf war was media managed. Air strikes were covered on
the news and were reported live Great deal of attention was paid by govt and
miliatry on the public relations part of the war through continous press briefings,
guidelines to restrict journalists info- max propaganda
Media managed war(self interest)
After cold war, military budgets were getting so having a new purpose being a global
policeman helped them avoid that
American economy struggling, with bush going back on his promise to reduce taxes.
Shit economy+declining popularity-stabilising oil markets was imp for economy, and
winning a war would boost popularity and support

FINAL PEACE TREATY

i) Recognition of Kuwait’s sovereignty
ii) Payment of war reparations
iii) No-fly zones in the Kurdish north and south to be enforced by
international forces- enforced by keeping military forces and airforce bases in the
ME
iv) Iraqi co-operation with UN weapons inspectors to uncover and destroy all
WMDs and potential to produce WMD
v) Agreement to wide-ranging sanctions UNTIL UN confirms all WMD are
destroyed.