What were the causes and consequences of the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88?
This conflict originated mostly about territorial issues, since Iran and Iraq share more than 1,400 km of border. Both countries export huge amounts of oil, since they’re rich on this natural resource. In the 1930’s a conflict between Iran and Iraq started because they could not figured out who was the one that would control a water way named the Shatt al-Arab waterway. This especially essential to iraq since it was the only outlet to the sea. This conflict resulted in a treaty, until in 1969 the Shah broke this treaty by refusing to pay the Iraqis. Saddam who was the leader of Iraq started to encourage people from Khuzestan to revolt against the Shah because this land used to belong to Iraq and was rich in natural resources so Saddam wanted this land. In contrast Iran started to encourage the Kurds, which people from Iraq, to take arms against Saddam. This two countries also are part of an age-old contest between power in the middle east. When the people from Iran started to revolt against the Shah, Saddam saw an opportunity of weakness in Iran therefore he attacked. The consequences of this 8 year war were none. Both leaders stayed in power, there was no winner, and no land was achieved by either side. Iran’s casualties were around 1 million, while Iraq had between 3-4 million casualties. Both countries ended up devastated economically, with huge debts and bankruptcy.