Iran-Iraq War
The
Iran-Iraq War, also known as the
Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی,
Jang-e-tahmīlī) in Iran, and
Saddām's Qādisiyyah (قادسيّة صدّام,
Qādisiyyat Saddām) in Iraq, was a
war between the armed forces of
Iraq and
Iran lasting from September
1980 to August
1988. It was commonly referred to as the
(Persian) Gulf War until the
Iraq-Kuwait conflict (
1990–
91), which became known as the Second (Persian) Gulf War and later simply the (Persian) Gulf War.
It has been called "the longest
conventional war of the
20th century", and cost 1 million casualties and US$1.19 trillion.
[See introduction of: D. Hiro. The Longest War. 1991. ISBN 0-415-90406-4]The war began when
Iraq invaded
Iran on
22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, demands for the overthrow of
Saddam Hussein's regime, and secret encouragement by the US administration (
Jimmy Carter, conveyed through
Saudi Arabia) which was embroiled in a dispute with the new regime in Iran.
The conflict saw early successes by the Iraqis, but before long they were repelled and the conflict stabilized into a long
war of attrition. The
United Nations Security Council called upon both parties to end the conflict on multiple occasions, but a
ceasefire was not agreed to until
20 August 1988, and the last
prisoners of war were not exchanged until
2003. The war irrevocably altered politics in the area, playing into wider global politics and leading to the
1990 Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait.
The war is also noted for extensive use of
chemical weapons by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops, Iranian civilians and Iraqi Kurds.
|
Iranian soldiers landing from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in the northern front of the war. The war (according to one estimate) resulted in USD$350 billion in damages to Iran alone. |
Although the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–1988 was a war over dominance of the
Persian Gulf region, the roots of the war go back many centuries. There has always been a rivalry between various kingdoms of
Mesopotamia (modern
Iraq) and
Persia (Iran).
Before the
Ottoman empire, Iraq was part of Persia ruled under the
Aq Qoyunlu dynasty. The rising power of the Ottomans put an end to this when
Murad IV annexed what is today Iraq from the weakening
Safavids of Persia in 1638 via the
Treaty of Zuhab. The border disputes between Persia and the Ottomans never ended however. Between 1555 and 1918, Persia and the Ottoman empire signed no less than 18 treaties re-addressing their disputed borders. Modern Iraq was created with the
British involvement in the region and the final collapse of the Ottoman empire, hence inheriting all the disputes with Persia.
More precisely, the origins of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–1988 go back to the question of sovereignty over the resource-rich province of
Khuzestan. Khuzestan, home to Iran's
Elamite Empire, was an independent non-
Semitic and non-
Indo-European speaking kingdom whose capital was
Susa. Khuzestan has, however, been attacked and occupied by various kingdoms of Mesopotamia (the precursors of modern Iraq) many times.
On
18 December 1959,
`Abd al-Karīm Qāsim, who had just taken control over Iraq by a
coup d'état, openly declared:
"We do not wish to refer to the history of Arab tribes residing in Al-Ahwaz and Mohammareh [Khorramshahr]. The Ottomans handed over Mohammareh, which was part of Iraqi territory, to Iran." The Iraqi regime's dissatisfaction over Iran's possession of
oil-rich Khuzestan province was not limited to rhetorical statements; Iraq started supporting
secessionist movements in Khuzestan, and even raised the issue of its territorial claims in the next meeting of the
Arab League, without any success. Iraq showed reluctance in fulfilling existing agreements with Iran, especially after the death of
Egyptian President
Gamāl `Abd an-Nāsir and the rise of the
Ba`ath Party, when Iraq decided to take on the role of "leader of the
Arab world".
In 1969, the deputy prime minister of Iraq openly declared:
"Iraq's dispute with Iran is in connection with Arabistan (Khuzestan) which is part of Iraq's soil and was annexed to Iran during foreign rule." Soon Iraqi
radio stations began exclusively broadcasting into "Arabistan", encouraging Arabs living in Iran and even
Balūchīs to revolt against Iran's central government.
Basra TV stations even started showing Iran's Khuzestan province as part of Iraq's new province called 'Nasiriyyah', renaming all Iranian cities with
Arabic names.
In 1971, Iraq broke off diplomatic relations with Iran after claiming sovereignty rights over the islands of
Abu Musa,
Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb in the
Persian Gulf, following the withdrawal of the British. Iraq then expelled 70,000 Iranians from its territory after complaining to the Arab League, and the UN, without any success.
One of the factors contributing to hostility between the two powers was a dispute over full control of the
Arvandrud/Shatt al-Arab waterway at the head of the Persian Gulf, an important channel for the oil exports of both countries. In
1975,
United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had sanctioned that
Mohammad Rezā' Pahlavī, the
Shah of Iran, attack Iraq over the waterway, which was under Iraqi control at the time; soon afterward both nations signed the
Algiers Accord, in which Iraq made territorial concessions, including the waterway, in exchange for normalized relations.
Iraq had staged a battle against Iranian forces a year earlier in 1974, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. Iran attempted to destabilize Iraq and encouraged
Kurdish nationalists to break up the country, in answer to Iraq's similar activities in Iran's
Khuzestan province. Iran's embassy in
London was subsequently attacked by Iraqi-sponsored terrorist forces a few months prior to the war in 1980, in what came to be known as the
Iranian Embassy Siege.
Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president at that time, was eagerly interested in elevating Iraq to a strong regional power. A successful invasion of Iran would make Iraq the dominant power in the Persian Gulf region and strengthen its lucrative oil trade. Such lofty ambitions were not that far-fetched. Severe officer purges (including several executions ordered by
Sādeq Khālkhālī, the post-revolution
sharī`ah ruler) and spare part shortages for Iran's American-made equipment had crippled Iran's once mighty
military. The bulk of the Iranian military was made up of poorly armed, though committed,
militias. Iran had minimal defenses in the Arvand/Shatt al-`Arab river.
Saddām on numerous occasions alluded to the
Islamic conquest of Iran in propagating his
anti-Persian position against Iran. For example, on
02 April 1980, a half-year before the outbreak of the war, in a visit by Saddām to al-Mustansiriyyah University in Baghdad, drawing parallels to the 7th-Century defeat of Persia in the
Battle of al-Qādisiyyah he announced:
"In your name, brothers, and on behalf of the Iraqis and Arabs everywhere we tell those [Persian] cowards and dwarfs who try to avenge Al-Qadisiyah that the spirit of Al-Qadisiyah as well as the blood and honor of the people of Al-Qadisiyah who carried the message on their spearheads are greater than their attempts."
[Speech made by Saddām Hussein. Baghdād, Voice of the Masses in Arabic, 1200 GMT 02 April 1980. FBIS-MEA-80-066. 03 April 1980, E2-3. E3]The aftermath of the
Iranian Revolution of
1979 was central to the conflict. The
Āyat-Allāh Rūh-Ollāh Khomaynī was threatening to export Islamic revolution to the rest of the
Middle East, even though Iran was hardly in any position to do so militarily, for most of the Shah's army had already been disbanded. The Khomeinist camp despised Iraq's Ba`athist secularism in particular, and believed that the oppressed
Shī`īs in Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, and
Kuwait could follow the Iranian example and turn against their governments. At the same time the revolution in Iran, the destabilization of the country and its alienation from the
West made it a tempting target to the expansionist
Saddām Hussein. In particular he felt that Iranian Sunni citizens would rather join a powerful Sunni-led Iraq than remain in the Shia dominated Iran.
Thus Iraq started the war believing that Sunnīs of Iran would join the opposing forces. It seems that Saddam hadn't fully appreciated the powers of nationalism over historically clan-centered differences, nor the power of the central state apparatus who controlled the press. Although some of the ethnic arabs of
Khuzestan collaborated with Iraqis, most of the Sunnīs of Iran turned against Iraqi invaders.
The
UN Secretary General report dated
9 December 1991 (S/23273) explicitly cites "Iraq's aggression against Iran" in starting the war and breaching International security and peace.
[See:]
*R.K. Ramazani, "Who started the Iran-Iraq war?"
*The Virginia Journal of International Law 33, Fall 1992, pp. 69–89 Link: http://www.student.virginia.edu/~vjilThe two nations severed diplomatic relations in June 1980, and sporadic border clashes increased. On
September 17, Iraq declared the Shatt al-Arab part of its territory.
Iraq launched a full-scale invasion of
Iran on
September 22 1980, claiming as a pretext, an Iranian assassination attempt on
Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.
The objectives of Iraq's invasion of Iran were:#Acquisition of the
Arvand/Shatt al-Arab waterway as part of Iraqi territory (Iraq's only port connection to The
Persian Gulf).#Acquisition of the three islands of
Abu Musa and the
Greater and Lesser Tunbs, on the unilateral behalf of the
UAE.#Annexing
Khuzestan as part of Iraqi territory.
The
surprise offensive advanced quickly against the still disorganized
Iranian forces, advancing on a wide front into Iranian territory along the
Mehran-
Khorramabad axis in Central Iran and towards Ahvaz in the oil-rich southern province of
Khuzestan.
Iraq encountered unexpected resistance, however. Rather than turning against the Ayatollah's government as exiles had promised, the people of Iran rallied around their country and mounted far stiffer resistance; an estimated 100,000 volunteers arrived at the front by November. An Iraqi Air Force attack on Iranian airfields was ineffective, due in part to the fact that the Iranian airfields were long enough for the
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force to deploy its planes, and that aircraft hangers had been upgraded to withstand bombs. The Iraqis soon found the Iranian military was not nearly as depleted as they had thought. In June of
1982, a successful Iranian counter-offensive recovered the areas previously lost to Iraq.
Most of the fighting for the rest of the war occurred on Iraqi territory, although some have interpreted the Iraqi withdrawal as a
tactical ploy by the Iraqi military. By fighting just inside Iraq, Saddām Hussein could rally popular Iraqi patriotism. The Iraqi army could also fight on its own territory and in well-established defensive positions. The Iranians continued to employ unsophisticated
human wave attacks, while Iraqi soldiers remained, for the most part, in a defensive posture.
Iraq offered a cessation of hostilities in 1982, but Iran's insistence from July 1982 onward to destroy the Iraqi government prolonged the conflict for another six years of static warfare.
Newly declassified US intelligence available
[SNIE 34/36.2-82 link: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB167] explores both the domestic and foreign implications of Iran's apparent (in 1982) victory over Iraq in their then two-year old war. Iran especially had the opportunity to cut off Iraq from the
Persian Gulf at the
Al-Faw Peninsula and win the war in the late stages of the conflict.
 |
Upon invading Iran on 22 September 1980, then-Iraqi President Saddām Hussein boasted he would be in Tehran in 3 days. |
See main article: U.S. support for Saddam during the Iran-Iraq warThe
United States had been wary of the
Tehran regime since the
Iranian Revolution, not least because of the detention of its Tehran
embassy staff in the 1979–81
Iran hostage crisis. Starting in 1982 with Iranian success on the battlefield, the U.S. made its backing of Iraq more pronounced, supplying it with intelligence, economic aid, normalizing relations with the government (broken during the 1967
Six-Day War), and also supplying weapons
[See: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php]. President Ronald Reagan decided that the United States
"could not afford to allow Iraq to lose the war to Iran", and that the United States
"would do whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran."[See statement by former NSC official Howard Teicher, dated 1/31/95, to the US District Court, Southern District of Florida:]
*UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. Case No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH, CARLOS CARDOEN, FRANCO SAFTA, JORGE BURR, INDUSTRIAS CARDOEN LIMITADA, DECLARATION OF a/k/a INCAR, HOWARD TEICHER, SWISSCO MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC. EDWARD A. JOHNSON, RONALD W. GRIFFIN, and TELEDYNE INDUSTRIES, INC., d/b/a, TELEDYNE WAH CHANG ALBANY. 1/31/95. A link about the trial: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1291 President Reagan formalized this policy by issuing a National Security Decision Directive ("NSDD") to this effect in June, 1982.
[Ibid.]Starting in 1981, both Iran and Iraq attacked
oil tankers and merchant ships, including those of neutral nations, in an effort to deprive the opponent of trade. After repeated Iraqi attacks on Iran's main exporting facility on
Khark Island, Iran attacked a Kuwaiti tanker near
Bahrain on
May 13 1984, and a
Saudi tanker in Saudi waters on
May 16. Attacks on ships of noncombatant nations in the Persian Gulf sharply increased thereafter, and this phase of the war was dubbed the "Tanker War."
Lloyd's of London, a British
insurance market, estimated that the Tanker War damaged 546 commercial vessels and killed about 430 civilian mariners. The largest of attacks were directed by Iran against Kuwaiti vessels, and on
November 1 1986, Kuwait formally petitioned foreign powers to protect its shipping. The
Soviet Union agreed to charter tankers starting in
1987, and the United States offered to provide protection for tankers
flying the U.S. flag on
March 7 1987 (
Operation Earnest Will and
Operation Prime Chance). Under
international law, an attack on such ships would be treated as an attack on the U.S., allowing the U.S. to retaliate militarily. This support would protect ships headed to Iraqi ports, effectively guaranteeing Iraq's revenue stream for the duration of the war.
An Iraqi plane accidentally attacked the
USS Stark (FFG 31), a
Perry class frigate on
May 17, killing 37 and injuring 21.
[See: http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/pic-stark.shtml] But U.S. attention was focused on isolating Iran; it criticized Iran's mining of international waters, and sponsored
UN Security Council Resolution 598, which passed unanimously on
July 20, under which it skirmished with Iranian forces. In October 1987, the U.S. attacked Iranian oil platforms in retaliation for an Iranian attack on the U.S.-flagged tanker
Sea Isle City.
[See: http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/pic-nimblearcher.shtml]On
April 14 1988, the frigate
USS Samuel B. Roberts was badly damaged by an Iranian mine. U.S. forces responded with
Operation Praying Mantis on
April 18, the
United States Navy's largest engagement of surface warships since
World War II. Two Iranian ships were destroyed, and an American helicopter crashed with no apparent combat damage, killing the two pilots.
[See: http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/pic-prayingmantis.shtml]In the course of these escorts by the U.S. Navy, the cruiser
USS Vincennes shot down
Iran Air Flight 655 with the loss of all 290 passengers and crew on
July 3 1988. The
American government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian
F-14 Tomcat, and that the Vincennes was operating in international waters at the time and feared that it was under attack. The Iranians, however, maintain that the Vincennes was in fact in Iranian territorial waters, and that the Iranian passenger jet was turning away and increasing altitude after take-off. U.S. Admiral
William J. Crowe also admitted on
Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles.
[See: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/docs/ir655-nightline-19920701.html] . The U.S. eventually paid compensation for the incident but never apologised.
Toward the end of the war, the land conflict regressed into
stalemate largely because neither side had enough self-propelled artillery or airpower to support ground advances.
The relatively professional Iraqi armed forces could not make headway against the far more numerous Iranian
infantry. The Iranians were outmatched in towed and self-propelled
artillery, which left their tanks and troops vulnerable. What followed was a blood bath with the Iranians substituting infantry for artillery. Both sides turned to more brutal weapons and tactics.
Iraq's air force soon began strategic bombing against Iranian cities, chiefly
Tehran, starting in 1985. In response to these attacks, Iran began launching SS-1 "
Scud" missiles against
Baghdad. Iraq did not respond in kind against Tehran until early 1988, able to deploy only air raids against the Iranian capital up until that point. In October 1986, Iraqi aircraft attacked civilian passenger trains and aircraft, including an
Iran Air Boeing 737 airliner unloading passengers at
Shiraz International Airport. 34 elementary and high schools were attacked by Iraqi warplanes in 1986 alone, killing hundreds of children.
[See dated IRNA archives: http://www.irna.ir]In retaliation for the successful Iranian
Karbala-5 operation in the fronts, during the course of 42 days, Iraq attacked 65 cities in 226 sorties, bombing civilian neighborhoods. Eight Iranian cities came under the attack from Iraqi missiles. Sixty-five children were killed during bombings in an elementary school in
Borujerd alone. These events became known as "the war of the cities".
[Ibid.]The war saw the use of
chemical weapons, especially
mustard gas and
sarin, by Iraq. International antipathy to the Tehran regime meant Iraq suffered few repercussions in spite of these attacks. After the war, the UN eventually condemned Iraq for using chemical weapons against Iran. Chemical weapons had not previously been widely used in any major war since the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
With foreign assistance, Iraq financed the purchase of more technologically advanced weapons, and built a more-modern, well-trained armed forces. After setbacks on the battlefield, it offered to return to the 1975 border. Iran was internationally isolated and facing rising public discontent. Finally, a cease-fire was agreed on
August 20 1988.
Iran
Military Armaments/Technology
During the early years of the war, Iran's arsenal was almost entirely American made, left over from the Royal Armed Forces of the dethroned Shah. Iran's foreign supporters gradually came to include
Syria, and
Libya, through which it obtained Scud missiles. It purchased weaponry from
North Korea and the
People's Republic of China, notably the
Silkworm anti-ship missile. Iran acquired weapons and parts for its Shah-era U.S. systems through covert arms transactions from officials in the
Reagan Administration, first indirectly through
Israel and then directly. It was hoped Iran would, in exchange, persuade several radical groups to release Western hostages, though this did not result; proceeds from the sales were diverted to the
Nicaraguan
Contras in what became known as the
Iran-Contra Affair.
In fact, according to the report of the U.S. Congressional Committees Investigating the
Iran-Contra Affair issued in November of 1987, "the sale of U.S. arms to Iran through Israel began in the summer of 1985, after receiving the approval of President Reagan."
[Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/Iran_Contra_Affair.html] These sales included "2,008
BGM-71 TOW anti-Tank missiles, and 235 parts kits for
MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles had been sent to Iran via Israel." Further shipments of up to US$2 billion of American weapons from Israel to Iran, consisting of 18
F-4 fighter-bombers, 46
A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers, and nearly 4,000 missiles were foiled by the
U.S. Department of Justice, and "unverified reports alleged that Israel agreed to sell Iran
AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, radar equipment, mortar and machinegun ammunition, field telephones, M-60 tank engines and artillery shells, and spare parts for
C-130 transport planes."
[Links:]
* http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/intro.htm
* http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/russiantext.html The
London Observer also estimated that Israel's arms sales to Iran during the war totalled US$ 500 million annually
[The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1186/8611002.html], and
Time Magazine reported that throughout 1981 and 1982, "the Israelis reportedly set up Swiss bank accounts to handle the financial end of the deals."
[Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/iran/ir861208.html] For more on Israeli Hawk missile sales to Iran see
[Richard Johns, "Arms Embargo Which Cannot Withstand The Profit Motive," Financial Times (London), 13 November 1987].
Aircraft
During war, Iran operated U.S.-manufactured
F-4 Phantom and
F-5 Freedom Fighter fighters, as well as
AH-1 Cobra light attack
helicopters. It also operated a number of
F-14 Tomcat fighters, which, according to a few sources, proved devastating to the Iraqis in the early phases of the war. However, due to the Iranian government's estrangement, spare parts were difficult to obtain. Despite this the Iranians managed to maintain a constant presence with their Tomcats during the entire conflict, mostly due to a combination of spare parts acquired on the black market and parts made in Iran. These were supported by
KC-135s, a
refueling tanker based on the
Boeing 707.
[See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm]Iraq
See also: Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990Military Armaments/Technology
Iraq's
army was primarily armed with weaponry it had purchased from the
Soviet Union and its
satellites in the preceding decade. During the war, it purchased billions of dollars worth of advanced equipment from the Soviet Union,
France [BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3324053.stm], as well as from the
People's Republic of China,
Egypt,
Germany, and other sources (including
Europe and facilities for making and/or enhancing chemical weapons).
Germany [Deutsche Welle report: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,716376,00.html] along with other Western countries (among them
United Kingdom,
France,
Spain (Explosivos Alaveses),
Italy and the
United States) provided Iraq with
biological and
chemical weapons technology and the precursors to nuclear capabilities (see below).
The source of Iraqi arms purchases between 1970 and 1990 (10 % of the world market during this period) are estimated to be:
The U.S. sold Iraq $200 million in helicopters which were used by the Iraqi military in the war. These were the only direct U.S.-Iraqi military sales and were valued to be about 0.6% of Iraq's conventional weapons imports during the war.
[See: http://web.archive.org/web/20040601181327/projects.sipri.se/armstrade/Trnd_Ind_IRQ_Imps_73-02.pdf] Ted Koppel of
ABC Nightline however on June 9, 1992 reported: "It is becoming increasingly clear that George Bush Sr., operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980's, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into [an aggressive power]."
The U.S., U.K., and Germany also provided "dual use" technology (computers, engines, etc) that allowed Iraq to expand its missile program and radar defenses. The U.S. Commerce department, in violation of procedure, gave out licenses to companies for $1.5 billion dual-use items to be sent to
Iraq. The State Department was not informed of this. Over one billion of these authorized items were trucks that were never delivered. The rest consisted of advanced technology. Iraq's Soviet-made Scuds had their ranges expanded as a result.
[See:]
*http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/LicenseMD.html
*http://www.iraqwatch.org/bulletins/vol2iss1jan03.htmYugoslavia sold weapons to both countries for the entire duration of the conflict.
Portugal helped both countries: it was not unusual seeing Iran and Iraqi-flag
ships side-by-side in
Sines, Portugal (a deep-sea
port).
Aircraft
Iraq's air force used Soviet weapons and reflected Soviet training, although it expanded and upgraded its fleet considerably as the war progressed. It conducted strategic bombing using
Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers. Its fighters included the
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, later supplemented by large purchases of
Sukhoi Su-22s and French
Dassault Mirage F1s. It also deployed the Anglo-French
Aérospatiale Gazelle scout helicopter and the
Exocet anti-ship missile.
[See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/airforce.htm]Chemical Weapons
[[Image:Halabjaattack.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Victims of {{Iraq}}'s poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of {{Halabja}} in Iraq. Iraq dropped the poison gas during the {{Iran-Iraq war}} in 1988. Then held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas allied with Tehran.
According to Iraqi documents, assistance in developing {{chemical weapon}}s was obtained from firms in countries like the {{United States}}, {{West Germany}}, the {{United Kingdom}}, {{France}} and {{China}}.
[Link: {{The Independent}}, Wednesday, 18 December, 2002: http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorbkgd/uscorpsiniraq.html]]]
In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Eastern and Western corporations and countries, as well as individuals, that exported a total of 17,602 tons chemical precursors to Iraq in the past two decades. By far, the largest suppliers of precursors for chemical weapons production were in
Singapore (4,515 tons), the
Netherlands (4,261 tons),
Egypt (2,400 tons),
India (2,343 tons), and
Federal Republic of Germany (1,027 tons). One
Indian company, Exomet Plastics (now part of EPC Industrie) sent 2,292 tons of precursor chemicals to Iraq. The Kim Al-Khaleej firm, located in
Singapore and affiliated to
United Arab Emirates, supplied more than 4,500 tons of
VX,
sarin, and
mustard gas precursors and production equipment to Iraq.
[See What Iraq Addmitted About its Chemical Weapons Program: http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif]In May of 2003, an extended list of American companies and other countries involvements in Iraq was provided by
The Independent (UK).
[Link: The Independent, Wednesday, 18 December, 2002: http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorbkgd/uscorpsiniraq.html]By contrast, Alcolac International, for example, a
Maryland company, transported
thiodiglycol, a
mustard gas precursor, to Iraq. Alcolac was small and was successfully prosecuted for its violations of export control law. The firm pleaded guilty in 1989. The Al Haddad trading company of
Tennessee delivered 60 tons of
DMMP, a chemical used to make
sarin, a
nerve gas implicated in so-called
Gulf War Syndrome. The Al Haddad trading company appears to have been an Iraqi front company. The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. Recent stories in The
New York Times and
The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in
Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. Al-Haddad was charged with conspiring to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a
giant Iraqi cannon.
On
25 May 1994, The
U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that
pathogenic (meaning
disease producing),
toxigenic (meaning
poisonous) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
It added: "These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction."''
[Link: http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm]The report then detailed 70 shipments (including
Anthrax Bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding that
"these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program."[See:]
*One list: http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/flow/iraq/seed.htm
*Another list: http://groups.msn.com/exposureofthetruth/biologicalssoldtoiraq.msnwA report by
Berlin's
Die Tageszeitung in 2002 reported that Iraq's 11,000-page report to the
UN Security Council listed 150 foreign companies that supported Saddam Hussein's
WMD program. Twenty-four U.S. firms were involved in exporting arms and materials to Baghdad
[Link: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php] Donald Riegle, Chairman of the
Senate committee that made the report, said,
"UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs." He added,
"the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record."
|
Iranian soldiers with gas masks posing in front of a sign reading: "Hey brother, smile". |
The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent Iraq 14 agents "with biological warfare significance," including
West Nile virus, according to Riegle's investigators.
[Saint Petersburg Times report: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/16/Perspective/How_Iraq_built_its_we.shtml]Iraq's Chemical weapons program was mainly assisted by German companies such as
Karl Kobe, which built a chemical weapons facility disguised as a pesticide plant. Iraq's foreign contractors, including Karl Kolb with Massar for reinforcement, built five large research laboratories, an administrative building, eight large underground bunkers for the storage of chemical munitions, and the first production buildings. 150 tons of mustard were produced in 1983. About 60 tons of
Tabun were produced in 1984. Pilot-scale production of
Sarin began in 1984.
[Central Intelligence Agency report: https://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/chap5.html] Germany also supplied reactors, heat exchangers, condensors and vessels.
France,
Austria, and
Spain provided similar equipment.
[Link: http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif]See also:*A
timeline of U.S. support for Saddām against Iran
[See: http://www.casi.org.uk/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html]*The statement of
Henry B. Gonzalez, Chairman, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs on
Iraq-gate[See: http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920325wp.htm]*
Center for Nonproliferation Studies: Foreign Suppliers to Iraq's Biological Weapons Program*And more sources:
[See:]
* University of Missouri School of Journalism database
* University of Sussex report
* A Global Policy Forum Report
* Text of the U.S. Senate Riegle Report
* NSA Archives
* Sydney Morning Herald report
* Litigation of involved corporations
* Consortium News article
*Friedman Alan, Spider's Web: The Secret History of how the White House Illegally Armed Iraq. New York, Bantam Books, 1993.
*Jentleson Bruce, With friends like these: Reagan, Bush, and Saddam, 1982-1990. New York, W. W. Norton, 1994.
*Phythian Mark, Arming Iraq: How the U.S. and Britain Secretly Built Saddam's War Machine. Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1997.
*Dennis Bernstein, Arming Iraq: Made in America, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Feb 25, 1998. Link to copy: http://www.geocities.com/iraqinfo/gulfwar/arms/madeinamerica.htmlFinancial support
Iraq's main financial backers were the oil-rich
Persian Gulf states, most notably
Saudi Arabia ($30.9 billion),
Kuwait ($8.2 billion) and the
United Arab Emirates ($8 billion).
[Iraq debt: non-Paris Club creditors: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/ch2_anxd_img06.jpg]The
Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an
Atlanta branch of
Italy's largest bank,
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying partially on U.S. taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when
FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq—some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.
Aside from the
New York Times, the
Los Angeles Times, and
ABC's
Ted Koppel, the
Iraq-gate story never picked up much steam, even though The U.S. Congress became involved with the scandal.
[Federation of American Scientists report: http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920519l.htm]Beginning in September, 1989, the
Financial Times laid out the first charges that BNL, relying heavily on U.S. government-guaranteed loans, was funding Iraqi chemical and nuclear weapons work. For the next two and a half years, the
Financial Times provided the only continuous newspaper reportage (over 300 articles) on the subject. Among the companies shipping militarily useful technology to Iraq under the eye of the U.S. government, according to the
Financial Times, were
Hewlett-Packard,
Tektronix, and
Matrix Churchill, through its
Ohio branch
[Report by Colombia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp] |
Victims of Iraq's poison gas attack on Halabja in 1988. |
With more than 100,000 Iranian victims
[Center for Documents of The Imposed War, Tehran. (مرکز مطالعات و تحقیقات جنگ)] of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons during the eight-year war,
Iran is, after
Japan, one of the world's top afflicted countries by
weapons of mass destruction.
The
Simon Wiesenthal Center, a
Jewish organization dedicated to preserving the memory of
the Holocaust, released a list of U.S. companies and their exports to Iraq.
The official estimate does not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for Veterans of Iran. According to a 2002 article in the
Star-Ledger:
"Nerve gas agents killed about 20,000 Iranian soldiers immediately, according to official reports. Of the 90,000 survivors, some 5,000 seek medical treatment regularly and about 1,000 are still hospitalized with severe, chronic conditions. Many others were hit by mustard gas..."
[Link to article by the Star-Ledger: http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?/specialprojects/mideaststories/me1209.html] Iraq also used chemical weapons on Iranian civilians, killing many in villages and hospitals. Many civilians suffered severe burns and health problems, and still suffer from them. Furthermore, 308 Iraqi missiles were launched at population centers inside Iranian cities between 1980 and 1988 resulting in 12,931 casualties.
The United States was not concerned with Saddam using weapons of mass destruction against Iranians at that time. According to a report by the
New York Times, "The use of gas [during the Iran-Iraq war] on the battle field by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern... We were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose".
[Colonel Walter Lang, former senior US Defense Intelligence officer, New York Times, Aug. 29, 2002.] There is hence great resentment in Iran that the international community helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal and armed forces, and also that the world did nothing to punish Saddam's Baathist regime for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers later felt obliged to oppose the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Saddam Hussein.
There are allegations, first surfaced by the
Defense Intelligence Agency that accused Iran of using chemical weapons as well. These allegations however, were later shown to be erroneous at best.
Joost Hiltermann, who was the principal researcher for the
Human Rights Watch between 1992-1994, conducted a two year study, including a field investigation in Iraq, capturing Iraqi government documents in the process.
|
Iran suffered heavy casualties from Saddām's chemical weapons. |
According to Hiltermann, the literature on the Iran-Iraq war reflects a number of allegations of Chemical Weapons use by Iran, but these are "marred by a lack of specificity as to time and place, and the failure to provide any sort of evidence".
[Lawrence Potter, Gary Sick. Iran, Iraq, and the legacies of war. 2004, MacMillan. ISBN 1403964505 p.153] Gary Sick and
Lawrence Potter call the allegations against Iran "mere assertions" and state: "no persuasive evidence of the claim that Iran was the primary culprit [of using chemical weapons] was ever presented".
[Lawrence Potter, Gary Sick. Iran, Iraq, and the legacies of war. 2004, MacMillan. ISBN 1403964505 p.156] Policy consultant and author
Joseph Tragert also states: "Iran did not retaliate with Chemical weapons, probably because it did not possess any at the time".
[Joseph Tragert. Understanding Iran. 2003, ISBN 1592571417 p.190]See also:The Chemical Attack on Halabja Further reading on surviving veterans of these weapons:[See links:]
*A report on Iranian victims of Iraqi blister agents, Medical Management of Chemical Casualties. Link: http://www.sc-ems.com/ems/NuclearBiologicalChemical/MedicalAspectsofNBC/chapters/chapter_7.htm
*Report by The New Jersey Star-Ledger, Link: http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?/specialprojects/mideaststories/me1209.html
*Report by The South Africa Star, Link: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=39470
*Report by The NY Times, Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0213-05.htm
*Report by MSNBC, Link: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3068535/site/newsweek
*Report: Iranian WMD Veterans sue Germany, Link: http://www.netiran.com/?fn=artd(1585)
*Report: Vets suing the U.S., Link: http://www.payvand.com/news/00/nov/1108.html
*NPR audio report on Iranian WMD veterans, Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1742878
*More medical reports: http://www.chronicillnet.org/PGWS/tuite/IRMED/IRANTOC.htm |
Iran's ethnic minorities actively participated in the war. Seen here is a cemetery of Azaris killed during the Iran-Iraq war. |
The war was disastrous for both countries, stalling economic development and disrupting oil exports. It cost Iran an estimated 1 million casualties
[Rajaee, Farhang. The Iran-Iraq war: the politics of aggression. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1993. p. 206], and $350 billion
[Rajaee, Farhang. The Iran-Iraq war: the politics of aggression. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 1993. p. 1]. Iraq was left with serious debts to its former Arab backers, including US$14 billion loaned by Kuwait, a debt which contributed to Saddām's 1990 decision to
invade.
Much of the oil industry in both countries was damaged in
air raids. Iran's production capacity has yet to fully recover from the damages during the war.
The war left the
borders unchanged. Two years later, as war with the western powers loomed, Saddām recognized Iranian rights over the eastern half of the
Shatt al-`Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier.
The war was extremely costly, one of the deadliest wars since the
Second World War. (Conflicts since
1945 which have surpassed the Iran-Iraq War in terms of casualties include the
Vietnam War,
Korean War, the
Second Sudanese Civil War, and the
Second Congo War). Many of the prisoners taken by both sides weren't released until up to 10 years after the conflict was over.
The current president of Iran
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and most of his cabinet members are veterans of the Iran-Iraq war.
|
An Iranian mother mourns the loss of her son in a war cemetery in Hoveizeh. |
On
9 December 1991, the UN Secretary-General reported the following to the UN Security Council:
"That Iraq's explanations do not appear sufficient or acceptable to the international community is a fact. Accordingly, the outstanding event under the violations referred to is the attack of 22 September 1980, against Iran, which cannot be justified under the charter of the United Nations, any recognized rules and principles of international law or any principles of international morality and entails the responsibility for the conflict."
"Even if before the outbreak of the conflict there had been some encroachment by Iran on Iraqi territory, such encroachment did not justify Iraq's aggression against Iran—which was followed by Iraq's continuous occupation of Iranian territory during the conflict—in violation of the prohibition of the use of force, which is regarded as one of the rules of jus cogens."
"On one occasion I had to note with deep regret the experts' conclusion that "chemical weapons had been used against Iranian civilians in an area adjacent to an urban centre lacking any protection against that kind of attack" (s/20134, annex). The Council expressed its dismay on the matter and its condemnation in resolution 620 (1988), adopted on 26 August 1988."[See items 6, 7, and 8 of the UN Secretary General's report to the UN Security Council on Dec 9, 1991:[1][2][3]]
*Secondary link source: p1 p2 p3
#
27 September-
29 September 1981:
Operation Thamen-ol-A'emeh; Iran retakes
Abadan.#
29 November-mid-December
1981:
Operation Tarigh ol-Qods; Iran retakes Abadan and area north of
Susangard.#
21 March-
30 March 1982:
Operation Fath-ol-Mobeen; Iran expels Iraqi troops from
Dezful-
Shush area.#
30 April-
24 May 1982:
Operation Beit-ol-Moqaddas; Iran retakes
Khorramshahr and drives Iraqis back across the border.#
14 July-
28 July 1982:
Operation Ramadhan; Failed Iranian offensive to capture
Basra.#
9 April-
17 April 1983:
Operation Valfajr-1; Failed Iranian offensive in Ein Khosh to capture Basra-Baghdad highway.#
19 October-mid November
1983:
Operation Valfajr-4; Iranian offensive in Iraq's Kurdistan near Panjwin makes small gains.#
22 February-
16 March 1984:
Operation Kheibar; Iranian offensive captures the Iraqi Majnoon Islands in the Haur al-Hawizeh marshes.#
10 March-
20 March 1985:
Operation Badr; Unsuccessful Iranian offensive to capture the Basra-Baghdad highway.#
9 February-
25 February 1986:
Operation Valfajr-8; Three-pronged Iranian offensive leads to capture of
Fao peninsula.#
2 June 1986:
Operation Karbala-1.#
1 September 1986:
Operation Karbala-2; Iranian offensive in the Hajj Umran area of Iraqi Kurdistan.#
9 January-
26 February 1987:
Operation Karbala-5; Iranian offensive in southern Iraq to capture Basra.#
21 June 1987:
Operation Nasr 4.#
16 March 1988:
Operation Valfajr-10; Iranian offensive in Iraqi
Kurdistan.#
27 July 1988:
Operation Mersad.
#
22 September-mid November
1980; Iraqi invasion of Iran#
9 March-
10 March 1986; Unsuccessful Iraqi offensive to recapture
Fao.#
17 May 1986; Iraqi offensive captures
Mehran.#
16 April-
18 April 1988; Iraqi offensive recaptures
Fao. Use of chemical weapons#
23 May-
25 May 1988; Iraqi offensive in northern and central sectors recaptures Shalamche using chemical weapons.#
19 June-
22 June 1988; Iraqi offensive captures Mehran.#
25 June 1988; Iraqi offensive recaptures Majnoon Islands.#
12 July 1988; Iraqi offensive retakes all Iraqi territory in the Musian border region.#
22 July-
29 July 1988; Iraqi offensive along the entire Iran border, captures some territory in the central and southern sectors with the help of
Mojahedin-e-Khalq, but fails in the northern sector.
*
History of Iraq*
Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990*
Saddam's trial and Iran-Iraq War*
History of Iran*
Military of Iran*
Military history of Iran*
Iranian Air Force in Iran-Iraq war*
Al-Faw Peninsula*
Battle of al-Qādisiyyah*
Mostafa Chamran, Minister of Defense killed during the Iran-Iraq war.
*
Frans Van Anraat*
Iran-Israel relations*
US-Iran relations*
Operation Prime Chance, the United States' involvement
*
Iran Ajr, the minelaying ship captured by the U.S.
*
Iran-Contra Affair*
Hands of Victory*
Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies*
Algiers Agreement (1975)*
Morteza Avini, prominent photographer of the Iran-Iraq war
*
Iraq-gate*
U.S. support for Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war*
List of US companies and countries that sold chemical weapons to Iraq*
More indepth reading, includes many links*
Video footage from the war*
Iraqi nerve agents*Paul Reynolds.
How Saddam could embarrass the West,
BBC,
December 16 2003. (regarding foreign powers which armed Iraq)
*
Global map of countries who took sides in the Iran-Iraq war*Kendal Nezan.
When our 'friend' Saddam was gassing people,
Le Monde Diplomatique, March 1998.
*
Robert Fisk.
Poison gas from Germany,
The Independent,
December 30 2000.
*Lev Lafayette.
Who armed Saddam?,
World History Archives,
July 26 2002.
*Norm Dixon.
How the U.S. armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons,
Green Left Weekly,
August 28 2002.
*Neil Mackay, F. Arbuthnot.
How did Saddam get his Chemical Weapons?,
Sunday Herald,
September 8 2002.
*
U.S. helped Saddam acquire Biological Weapons,
Congressional Record,
September 20 2002.
*
Eric Margolis.
British helped Saddam develop biological weapons,
The American Conservative,
October 7 2002.
*
Robert Fisk.
America wants us to forget about the sources of Saddam's WMD,
The Independent,
October 8 2002.
*Robert Fisk.
Did Saddam's army test poison gas on missing 5000?,
The Independent,
December 13 2002.
*Elaine Sciolino.
Iraq WMD condemned, but West once looked the other way,
New York Times,
February 13 2003.
*Paul Bond.
British built Chemical Weapons plant in Iraq,
World Socialist Web Site,
March 13 2003.
*Tom Drury.
How Iraq built its weapons programs: with help from the West,
St. Petersburg Times, March 16, 2003.
*
Iraqi scientist reports on German, other help for Iraq Chemical Weapons program,
Al-Zaman,
December 1 2003.
*Elaine Sciolino.
Saddam's gas victims blame the West,
New York Times,
February 14 2003.
*Eddie Davers.
Australia's support for Saddam in the 1980s,
Overland, Autumn 2003.
*Alan Maass.
When the U.S. supported Saddam: The crimes of a U.S. ally,
Socialist Worker, January 2, 2004.
*Joseph Kay, A. Lefebvre.
The diplomacy of imperialism: Washington-Saddam connection,
World Socialist Web Site,
March 19 2004.
*Alex Lefebvre.
The diplomacy of imperialism: Reagan administration deepens ties with Saddam,
World Socialist Web Site,
March 24 2004.
*Alex Lefebvre.
The diplomacy of imperialism: U.S. financial assistance for Saddam in the 1980s,
World Socialist Web Site,
March 26 2004.
*Joseph Kay.
The diplomacy of imperialism: The end of the Iran-Iraq war,
World Socialist Web Site,
March 29 2004.
*Joseph Kay, A. Lefebvre.
The diplomacy of imperialism: American policy after the Iran-Iraq war,
World Socialist Web Site,
April 2 2004.
*
Robert Fisk.
When I reported Saddam's use of mustard gas, British government told me to stop criticizing our ally, Saddam,
The Independent,
April 10 2004.
*Norm Dixon.
How Reagan armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons,
CounterPunch,
June 17 2004.
*Jacob Hornberger.
Reagan's WMD connection to Saddam,
Future of Freedom Foundation,
June 18 2004.
*Aaron Glantz.
The West should go on trial with Saddam,
Inter Press Service,
June 18 2004.
*
100,000 Iranians are victims of chemical weapons, supplied by the West,
IRNA, June 30, 2004.
*
Eric Margolis.
Put Saddam's backers on trial,
Foreign Correspondent,
December 20 2004.
*
Dutchman charged for selling chemicals to Saddam,
BBC, March 18, 2005.
*
Iranian survivors of nerve gas attack testify in Chemical Frans' trial,
IRNA, December 1, 2005.
*
Dutchman know the chemicals were for nerve agents,
Agence France-Presse, December 3, 2005.
*
Trial Watch: Frans Van Anraat*
Chemical Frans: Saddam's Dutch link,
BBC, December 23, 2005.
*Jeff Moore.
Saddam: Made in the USA,
Bainbridge Neighbors for Peace.
*
Shaking hands with Saddam: U.S. supports for Iraq in the 1980s,
U.S. National Security Archive.
*
A report on Iranian victims of Iraqi blister agents,
Medical Management of Chemical Casualties* Martsching, Brad. "
Iran-Iraq War and Waterway Claims,"
American University Inventory of Conflict & Environment, May 1998.
*
Center for Strategic and International Studies:
The Lessons of Modern War: Volume Two - The Iran-Iraq Conflict, with Abraham R. Wagner, Westview, Boulder, 1990.
* Center for Strategic and International Studies:
Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iran and Iraq ,
March 27 2000.
* GlobalSecurity.org:
Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)*
United States Marine Corps:
FMFRP 3-203 - Lessons Learned: Iran-Iraq War, 10 December 1990.
Iranian sources
* John King.
Arming Iraq: A Chronology of U.S. Involvement,
Iran Chamber Society, March 2003.
*
Iran Veterans Affairs Organization*
Memoirs, photos, and essays about the war,
Iranian.com.
*
Isfahan's War Veterans Foundation.
**Pictures from the foundation's war memorial museum: [
4]
*
Islamic Republic News Agency,
Sacred Defense Epic
