Activity 11, The Political Context
There were many problems in the Middle East in addition to the Arab-Israeli conflict. There was also a growing resurgence of Moslem fundamentalism. Opposition to the Iranian Shah strengthened during the 1960's and 1970's. The major opposition came from religious leaders, particularly Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah Khomeini, who taught and preached at a religious school in the holy city of Qom. Islamic fundamentalism was an effort by some Moslems to restore the primacy of Islam and Islamic values in daily life as expressed in the Koran. Khomeini was the leader of the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran. The Shah arrested him several times and he was finally exiled. From exile Khomeini issued a barrage of propaganda against the Shah. In January 1978, demonstrations on behalf of Khomeini rocked Qom. Protests escalated in other cities, including Teheran, the capitol. In January 1979, the pro-Western Shah left Iran. The anti-Western Ayatollah Khomeini triumphantly returned from exile. He quickly assumed power in Iran. On April 1, 1979, Khomeini declared Iran to be an Islamic Republic. He and other clerics assumed control of the government. They ruled ruthlessly, executing military and political leaders who had supported the Shah. This greatly weakened Iran's military establishment and devastated the economy. American sanctions also weakened the Iranian economy and military preparedness. Simultaneously, Khomeini fomented rebellion among the Shiite minorities in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Relations between Iran and Iraq deteriorated. Khomeini fomented religious rebellions in Iraq because he opposed Saddam Hussein's secular Baathist regime. Iran also goaded the Kurdish population in Iraq to revolt against Saddam Hussein's government. Saddam ruthlessly crushed all internal opposition and responded by encouraging the Kurds in northern Iran to revolt. Khomeini attacked the Kurds, but his weakened military forces were unable to overcome their opposition.
Simultaneously, Khomeini began a concerted verbal attack upon the United States, which had strongly supported the Shah and had been responsible for the introduction of Western ideas into Iran. The American embassy was taken by radical students and the fifty-two embassy personnel were held hostage for 444 days. President Carter suffered a dramatic decline in prestige as reporters and journalists pressured him to tell the American public what he was going to do to free the hostages. An American attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably. Carter lost his bid for re-election and the Iranians released the hostages on the day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President.
On September 22, 1980--twenty months after Khomeini came to power--Iraq invaded Iran expecting a swift victory due to the chaotic conditions in Iran. Far from a swift and easy victory, Iraq's attack launched the longest and bloodiest war in modern Middle Eastern history. In the course of eight years more than half a million people died and large areas of both countries were devastated. The immediate cause of the conflict was the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq. Iraq controlled one bank and Iran the other. This dispute goes back to the nineteenth century. In 1937 it was settled in favor of Iraq. The Shah tore up the agreement in 1969 and occupied the disputed area with military force. In the Algiers Agreement in 1975, both nations agreed that the demarcation between them would be the midpoint of the river.
The main goal of Saddam Hussein's attack was the capture of the Iranian refinery at Abadan, which controlled the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab. If Iraq occupied both sides, Iraq could then control the Iranian oil tankers that used the waterway. Iraqi military forces made swift gains, but were unable to take Abadan. Iranians defended their territory fanatically. In the spring of 1982, the Iranian military gained the initiative. Using human wave tactics, Iranian soldiers pushed the invaders back into Iraq. The Iranian military occupied territory in Iraq, including land surrounding the Southern town of Basra, Iraq's second largest city. To prevent a defeat, Iraq used poison gas, which blunted the Iranian invasion.
Iraq had a huge advantage over Iran in its quantity and quality of artillery weapons. Iraq developed fixed defenses composed of mine fields, barbed wire, buried tanks and thousands of anti-infantry weapons. Iranian human wave tactics against entrenched Iraqi positions resulted in the heavy loss of life: Iraq killed 20,000 to 30,000 Iranian soldiers in some battles.
Syria supported Iran and Israel gave some behind the scenes support to the Iranians. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were interested in containing Iran, and hence they supported Iraq. Iraq borrowed billions of dollars from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to buy weapons to prevent the Iranian army from gaining the upper hand. Iraq also pressured the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When Saddam Hussein believed that the UAE was not giving enough support, he sent aircraft 600 miles to bomb two UAE oil rigs in the Persian Gulf.
Toward the end of 1987, Iraq employed long-range Scud missiles to attack Iranian cities. As the missiles were highly inaccurate, they hit mainly civilian targets in Iran and were considered as a terrorist weapon of little military value. On the ground, the Iranian military was unable to mount additional offensives. Iraq took the initiative and began pushing Iranian military units from Iraqi territory. In their last major land battle 65,000 Iranians died.
When Iraq began attacking Iranian oil fields, the Iranian military retaliated against Iraqi oil refineries and against commercial oil tankers in the Gulf. Iranian aircraft attacked Kuwaiti tankers, because Iran believed that Kuwait was supporting Iraq. The United States naval vessels began escorting Kuwaiti tankers out of the Persian Gulf. By mistake one of the United States naval ships shot down an Iranian airliner in July 1988. Khomeini concluded that the war needed to be brought to an end, and Iran accepted the U.N.-brokered cease fire on July 18, 1988. An estimated 500,000 Iranians and Iraqis died during the war.
Saddam Hussein interpreted the war as a victory. He immediately crushed the dissident Kurds in northern Iraq. Chemical weapons were used by the Iraqis against civilians in villages. The Kurdish rebellion was crushed. More than 100,000 Kurdish refugees fled into Turkey.
Student Questions
Why did Iraq invade Iran?
What were the results of the Iraq-Iran War?
How might the Iraq-Iran War contribute to subsequent wars in the Middle East?
Why did Western nations and the Soviet Union support Iraq?
Return to Activity 11.
Go to the Contents page for International Conflict and the Media.
Go to the Bibliography.