OnThisDay: Sep22nd 1980, Iran-Iraq War Began
The Iran–Iraq War (Persian: جنگ ایران و عراق; Arabic: حرب الخليج الأولى; “First Gulf War”), known in Iran as the Sacred Defense (Persian: دفاع مقدس; Defâ Moqaddas) was a protracted armed conflict that began on 22 September 1980 when Iran was invaded by neighbouring Iraq. The war lasted almost eight years, ending in a stalemate on 20 August 1988 when Iran accepted a UN-brokered ceasefire. Iraq’s rationale for the invasion was primarily to cripple Iran and prevent Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exporting the 1979 Iranian Revolution movement to Shia-majority Iraq and threaten the Sunni-dominated Ba’athist leadership. Iraq had also wished to replace Iran as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf, which had not been previously possible due to pre-revolutionary Iran’s goliath status in both economic and military terms as well as its close alliances with the United States and Israel. The war followed a long-running history of border disputes, as a result of which Iraq had planned to annex Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan Province and the east bank of the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand Rud).
Fighting was ended by a 1988 cease-fire , through the resumption of normal diplomatic relations with the withdrawal of troops did not take place until the signing of a formal peace agreement on August 16 1990.
Compiledd by: DurreShahwar
