Iraqi soldiers march in formation past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad, on “Great Victory Day,” during a formal ceremony marking the end of the long Iran-Iraq War. AFP
Iraqi soldiers march in formation past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad, on “Great Victory Day,” during a formal ceremony marking the end of the long Iran-Iraq War. AFP

1980 - The Iran-Iraq War’s long aftermath

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Updated 19 April 2025
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1980 - The Iran-Iraq War’s long aftermath

1980 - The Iran-Iraq War’s long aftermath
  • One of the bloodiest conflicts in modern Middle Eastern history continues to shape the region over four decades later

LONDON: I joined the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office in September 1980, two weeks before Iraq invaded Iran and started the bloodiest war in modern Middle Eastern history. Perhaps a million combatants and uncounted civilians died. Four-and-a-half decades later, we still live with the consequences. 

There had always been tensions between the two countries but 1979 had really set the scene. That was the year that changed everything: the shah was overthrown in Iran; Juhayman Al-Otaibi seized Makkah’s Grand Mosque; in Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq executed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; an Islamist insurgency in Syria accelerated; and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. These events ushered in a new and alarming era of turbulence and instability. 

For the Middle East, the subsequent outbreak of hostilities between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and revolutionary Iran became the defining event of the period. It represented a clash between competing versions of modernity: the Baathist dream of mystical Arab nationalism, and Ruhollah Khomeini’s heterodox reimagining of Islamism, based on a mythical past and deriving legitimacy from a reactionary interpretation of clerical authority. Both systems were harshly repressive and each had their true believers. 

Iraq thought itself to be stronger, especially after the revolutionaries in Iran had purged the generals and Tehran’s traditional sources of military supplies in the West dried up. But Iran, surfing a wave of popular enthusiasm, proved more resilient than expected. The war became an attritional stalemate. Khomeini refused all appeals to bring the conflict to an end until he was finally forced to do so in 1988, after horrifying losses on both sides.

How we wrote it




The day after the conflict began, Arab News covered the outbreak, emphasizing the months of strained relations that culminated in the armed clashes.

For much of this period I had a ringside seat as a young diplomat in Abu Dhabi. The impact of the events on the Arab states of the Gulf was huge. They feared the expansion of the Iranian revolution into their territories. Article 154 of the new Iranian Constitution had committed Iran to pursuing exactly this. It had been put into effect partly through the activities of an organization linked to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, and partly through support channeled through what became Lebanese Hezbollah to dissident Shiite movements in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in particular — whose activities included bombings and plane hijackings.

This was the most serious challenge to stability and cohesion that these states, most of which had only achieved independence between 1961 and 1971, had ever faced. Their domestic institutions and military capacities were still weak. And Iran represented both a material and an ideological threat. It is hardly surprising that they chose to financially support Iraq, which was Arab, Sunni-ruled, populous, educated and a familiar (if sometimes overbearing) neighbor. 

The end of the war in 1988 left Iraq with massive debts to other Gulf states, particularly Kuwait, and widespread damage to essential infrastructure, particularly in the south, around Basra, where most of the country’s oil fields are concentrated. 

Saddam decided to recoup his losses by bullying Kuwait, which refused to buckle. That led him to invade the country on Aug. 2, 1990. 

He might have thought he could do a deal that would have left him in control of Kuwait’s northern oil fields. Instead, he suffered a catastrophic defeat that left his military aspirations in tatters, his weapons programs subject to international supervision and the economy crippled by sanctions, which tore apart the fabric of Iraqi society. 

Key Dates

  • 1

    Following anti-government riots inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Iraq demands Iran withdraws its ambassador.

  • 2

    Iraq executes Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr, a supporter of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and his sister.

    Timeline Image April 9, 1980

  • 3

    Iraqi militants linked to Iran assassinate several officials from Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

    Timeline Image April 1980

  • 4

    Saddam announces Iraq is withdrawing from the 1975 Algiers Accord, under which Iraq and Iran agreed to resolve their border disputes.

  • 5

    Iraqi Air Force bombs Iranian airfields. The following day Iraqi troops cross the border into Iran.

    Timeline Image Sept. 22-23, 1980

  • 6

    American frigate the USS Samuel B. Roberts hits a mine laid by Iran in the Gulf.

  • 7

    American warship USS Vincennes accidentally shoots down an Iranian airliner, killing all 290 people on board.

    Timeline Image July 3, 1988

  • 8

    Iran accepts UN Security Council Resolution 598, which calls for an end to the fighting and a return to prewar borders, and requests a ceasefire.

    Timeline Image July 17, 1988

  • 9

    Under pressure from the UN, US and Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq finally agrees to ceasefire.

    Timeline Image Aug. 6, 1988

  • 10

    Resolution 598 comes into effect, ending the war.

  • 11

    Iran-Iraq peace talks begin.

  • 12

    The UN peacekeeping force sent to monitor the ceasefire in August 1988 finally withdraws.

The uprisings that followed in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north — neither of which were successful in a conventional sense — helped set the scene for the way in which Iraq reconstituted itself along sectarian and ethnic lines after Saddam’s eventual fall in 2003. 

In Iran, the myth of the war as one of exemplary national resistance at a time of isolation has endured powerfully, at least within the ranks of the regime and its supporters. It has fed a narrative of victimization that already had deep historic and cultural resonance among many Shiites. 

It also led Iran to double down on a strategy of so-called mosaic defense and proxy warfare, designed to compensate for conventional military weakness. It does not in any way seem to have reduced Tehran’s appetite for destroying Israel and ultimately bringing its neighbors under Islamist rule. 

The overthrow of Saddam in 2003 was widely seen as a belated sequel to 1991, when coalition forces had failed to follow the fleeing Iraqi army all the way to Baghdad and instead allowed Saddam and his loyalists to regain domestic control outside the Kurdish areas. 




Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, accompanied by army officials and soldiers, at the Iraq-Iran border during the Iran-Iraq War which lasted until 1988. AFP

The diplomatic maneuvering of the subsequent decade corrupted parts of the international system, with the oil-for-food scandal and persistent obstructionism by certain members of the UN Security Council. But 2003 was, in practice, a victory for Iran — as was the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. 

And this story is not over. The Taliban is back in power in Afghanistan and the shadow of Daesh, which emerged from the chaos of Iraq, continues to haunt the region. In the wake of the dramatic events of the past year, which has seen Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and Gaza seriously weakened, and its investment in the Assad regime in Syria come to nothing, Tehran is perhaps more isolated than ever. 

And with the return to power in the US of President Donald Trump, who during his first term pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal and stepped up sanctions, life for the Iranian people is not likely to improve for the foreseeable future. 

If Ruhollah Khomeini had not been expelled from Najaf by Saddam Hussein in 1978; if the Shah had not had cancer; if Saddam had reacted more calmly to Iranian provocations in 1979; if Khomeini had agreed to a ceasefire after the recapture of Khorramshahr; if Saddam had not then gambled on an invasion of Kuwait; if Iran had become a more normal country, then we might be living in a different world. But we are not. More’s the pity. 

  • Sir John Jenkins is a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, where he has written extensively on Islamophobia and extremism. He was the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia until January 2015. 


Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources

Updated 22 sec ago
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Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources

Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources
The 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations
A Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges

ATHENS: A Greek naval court has charged 17 coast guard officers over one of the Mediterranean’s worst shipwrecks two years ago, in which hundreds of people are believed to have drowned, three sources said on Friday.

The shipwreck of an overloaded migrant boat in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The naval court is still investigating the circumstances around the incident.

A coast guard vessel had been monitoring the boat, named Adriana, for 15 hours before it capsized and sank. It had left Libya for Italy with about 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.

Greek coast guard authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the handling of the case.

Three legal sources said the 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations ranging from obstructing transport to causing or helping cause a shipwreck.

Contacted by Reuters, a Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges and had asked to be briefed by the naval court.

Greece’s judicial system has several preparatory stages and the compilation of charges does not necessarily mean that an individual will face trial.

Human rights activists and other protesters plan rallies across Greece on June 21 to mark the second anniversary of the Pylos shipwreck.

In February, the Greek Ombudsman recommended disciplinary action against eight coast guard officers, the first national probe into the incident to conclude.

Greece says that the coast guard operates with respect to human rights and that it has rescued more than 250,000 people since 2015, when the country was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis.

Pakistan calls for Gaza aid access amid Israeli push for full control

Pakistan calls for Gaza aid access amid Israeli push for full control
Updated 9 min 28 sec ago
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Pakistan calls for Gaza aid access amid Israeli push for full control

Pakistan calls for Gaza aid access amid Israeli push for full control
  • Israel’s war on Gaza has killed around 53,000 Palestinians and displaced two million
  • Pakistan says it opposes any attempts to displace Palestinians from their ancestral lands

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office on Friday called for the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Palestinians after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his country’s plan to press ahead with its military campaign and take full control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel imposed a total blockade of the war-torn Palestinian territory in March, cutting off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other essential supplies. The move triggered a deepening humanitarian crisis, with aid agencies warning of widespread malnutrition and a looming famine, particularly among children.

The blockade has drawn international condemnation, with the United Nations and human rights groups urging its immediate lifting on legal and humanitarian grounds. While Israel permitted limited aid deliveries this month, UN officials described the efforts as “a drop in the ocean” for Gaza’s 2.1 million residents.

“The expansion of Israeli ground operations in Gaza, as well as its announcement to take control of all of Gaza, poses a grave threat to efforts aimed toward achieving peace and stability in the region,” the foreign office spokesperson, Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan, said during his weekly media briefing. “In addition, Israel also continues to deliberately obstruct critical humanitarian aid from reaching millions in dire need.”

“Pakistan reiterates its call on the international community for an immediate end to Israel’s genocidal campaign and to ensure a lasting ceasefire in Gaza,” he continued. “It also urges concrete steps toward provision of unimpeded humanitarian supplies to millions of Palestinians in dire need, as well as to hold Israel accountable for its egregious crimes.”

Khan condemned Israeli attacks on hospitals and other critical infrastructure during its military campaign.

He also maintained that Pakistan opposed any attempts to displace Palestinians from their ancestral lands, expand illegal Israeli settlements or annex any part of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The war in Gaza began in October 2023 and has so far killed about 53,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s two million residents.


Pakistan says initial probe confirms Indian involvement in school bus attack in Balochistan

Pakistan says initial probe confirms Indian involvement in school bus attack in Balochistan
Updated 17 min 4 sec ago
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Pakistan says initial probe confirms Indian involvement in school bus attack in Balochistan

Pakistan says initial probe confirms Indian involvement in school bus attack in Balochistan
  • Balochistan has been the site of an insurgency for decades, though it has intensified more recently
  • Islamabad says Indian ‘terror proxies’ have been tasked to accentuate their attacks in Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Friday that its initial probe into an attack on a school bus in the Balochistan province has confirmed the involvement of “Indian terror proxies,” promising to defeat the “nefarious” designs.

Balochistan has been the site of an insurgency for decades, though it has intensified more recently, with groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carrying out high-profile attacks on civilians and security forces.

On Wednesday, at least seven people, including six children, were killed when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeted the school bus en route to an army-run school in Balochistan’s Khuzdar.

Speaking at a press conference alongside a Pakistani military spokesman, Interior Secretary Khurram Muhammad Agha called the Khuzdar bombing an attack on “our values, our education and on the very fabric of our society.”

“Initial findings confirm that this attack is in continuity of a broader pattern of violence sponsored by India through Fitna Al-Hindustan (FAH) operating under the tutelage and the patronage of the Indian intelligence agency R&AW,” he said, without offering any proof to link New Delhi to Wednesday’s assault.

The Indian administration has distanced itself from the Khuzdar school bus bombing, attributing such acts of violence to Pakistan’s “internal failures.”

The FAH comprises several separatist groups and independently operating cells who have been operating in the insurgency-hit southwestern Pakistani province, according to the Pakistani officials. These cells, after having suffered immense casualties in past few years, have now resorted to hitting “soft targets.”

“The terror proxies of Hindustan [India] have been tasked to accentuate their heinous attacks of terrorism in Balochistan and elsewhere, sabotage development in the region, incite fear among the population and derail the journey of peace and development in an attempt to repeat their playbook of 1971 [a reference to the fall of Dhaka],” he said.

During the presser, Pakistani military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry detailed various incidents of violence that he said were carried out by India-backed groups.

“Very recently the media international media has seen self-given confessions and acknowledgements of multiple surrendered terrorists of this Fitna Al-Hindustan who told that how Hindustan is funding, planning and carrying out terrorist acts in Balochistan,” he noted.

Relations between Pakistan and India touched a new low last month, when gunmen killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir in an attack India blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denies complicity and Lt Gen Chaudhry said New Delhi had still not provided any evidence to back up its accusation.

A day earlier, Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations (UN) said they would raise the school bus attack at the UN and present evidence of Indian involvement to the international community.

“This was a heinous terrorist act directed against children, against students, [which is] totally unacceptable and condemnable,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told Arab News in an interview.

Interior Secretary Agha said Pakistan and its people, particularly those in Balochistan, reject such “nefarious designs” and Islamabad had the capacity and will to dismantle these networks and to bring the perpetrators and their handlers to justice.

“I assure you that the state in collaboration with the provincial governments and the state apparatus will defeat them,” he said.

“These Indian sponsored terrorists have no place in Pakistan. We have the wherewithal and the commitment to bring an end to this violence. Our resolved is firm and our response will be decisive.”

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and frequently accuse each other of fomenting militancy in the other’s territory. Both countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.


Alexander-Arnold ‘deserves’ his part in Liverpool title party: Slot

Alexander-Arnold ‘deserves’ his part in Liverpool title party: Slot
Updated 46 min 3 sec ago
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Alexander-Arnold ‘deserves’ his part in Liverpool title party: Slot

Alexander-Arnold ‘deserves’ his part in Liverpool title party: Slot
  • Arne Slot said Trent Alexander-Arnold “deserves” to be part of Liverpool’s title celebrations despite revealing he was unhappy with the defender’s performances in training at the start of the season

LIVERPOOL: Arne Slot said Trent Alexander-Arnold “deserves” to be part of Liverpool’s title celebrations despite revealing he was unhappy with the defender’s performances in training at the start of the season.
The England international announced his decision to quit his boyhood club earlier this month and is widely expected to join Real Madrid.
He was booed by Liverpool fans when he came on as a second-half substitute in last week’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal at Anfield and did not play in the 3-2 defeat at Brighton on Monday.
Liverpool, who wrapped up the Premier League title last month with four games to spare, will be presented with the trophy after Sunday’s game against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace.
Slot was asked by reporters on Friday whether he had concerns that the celebrations would be overshadowed by an negative reaction to Alexander-Arnold.
He said he had yet to make a decision on the extent of the right-back’s involvement.
“I haven’t decided on that one yet but I think this should be a day that everybody is going to enjoy,” Slot said.
“It’s been 35 years everybody is waiting for this moment.”
Liverpool lifted the 2020 Premier League trophy behind closed doors due to Covid restrictions.
Slot, in his first season at Anfield, said celebrations after Liverpool sealed the title against Tottenham were special.
“I’m hoping that we can add a moment like this to it and I think everybody that’s in this stadium deserves to be there, the fans, the staff, but also the players,” he said.
“One of my players is Trent so he definitely deserves to be there as well because he’s been part of an incredibly successful season and an incredibly successful (few) years at this club.”


While Slot hopes Alexander-Arnold gets a fond farewell from fans, the Dutchman was critical about the right-back’s efforts in training during his early weeks as Liverpool manager.
“He’s going to leave either way so maybe it’s already a first gift I can give Xabi (Alonso, expected to be the new Real Madrid manager),” he said.
“But I wasn’t completely happy with every single minute how he was on the training ground. So, in my opinion, in certain moments he could do a bit more, to say it mildly.
“I said to him ‘You are a much better defender than everybody tells you, but unfortunately you don’t show it all the time’.”
Slot said he told Alexander-Arnold, 26, that if he was focused there were not many players that could go past him because he is “fast, he’s agile, he has a great mentality.”
“It’s about showing it every single game, because in this world we are judged not only on the 34 games we do well, we are mainly judged on the four games that we don’t do so well,” he said.


Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow

Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow
Updated 51 min 9 sec ago
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Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow

Hezbollah seeks boost in Lebanon vote as disarmament calls grow
  • Iran-backed Lebanese militant group aims to maintain political sway after pounding in war with Israel
  • Reconstruction aid for Lebanon tied to Hezbollah disarmament, foreign minister says

NABATIEH: Amid the rubble left by Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon, campaign posters urge support for Hezbollah in elections on Saturday as the group aims to show it retains political clout despite the pounding it took in last year’s war.
For Hezbollah, the local vote is more important than ever, coinciding with mounting calls for its disarmament and continued Israeli airstrikes, and as many of its Shiite Muslim constituents still suffer the repercussions of the conflict.
Three rounds of voting already held this month have gone well for the Iran-backed group. In the south, many races won’t be contested, handing Hezbollah and its allies early wins.
“We will vote with blood,” said Ali Tabaja, 21, indicating loyalty to Hezbollah. He’ll be voting in the city of Nabatieh rather than his village of Adaisseh because it is destroyed.
“It’s a desert,” he said.
The south’s rubble-strewn landscape reflects the devastating impact of the war, which began when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Hamas at the start in October 2023 of the Gaza conflict and culminated in a major Israeli offensive.
Hezbollah emerged a shadow of its former self, with its leaders and thousands of its fighters killed, its influence over the Lebanese state greatly diminished, and its Lebanese opponents gaining sway.
In a measure of how far the tables have turned, the new government has declared it aims to establish a state monopoly on arms, meaning Hezbollah should disarm — as stipulated by the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
Against this backdrop, the election results so far indicate “the war didn’t achieve the objective of downgrading Hezbollah’s popularity in the community,” said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center, a think tank. “On the contrary, many Shia now feel their fate is tied to Hezbollah’s fate.”
Hezbollah’s arms have long been a source of division in Lebanon, sparking a brief civil conflict in 2008. Critics say Hezbollah has unilaterally dragged Lebanon into hostilities.
Foreign Minister Youssef Raji, a Hezbollah opponent, has said that Lebanon has been told there will be no reconstruction aid from foreign donors until the state establishes a monopoly on arms.
Hezbollah, in turn, has put the onus on the government over reconstruction and accuses it of failing to take steps on that front, despite promises that the government is committed to it.

DISARMAMENT TERMS
Hage Ali said that conditioning reconstruction aid on disarmament was intended to expedite the process, but “it’s difficult to see Hezbollah accepting this.”
Hezbollah says its weapons are now gone from the south, but links any discussion of its remaining arsenal to Israel’s withdrawal from five positions it still holds, and an end to Israeli attacks.
Israel says Hezbollah still has combat infrastructure including rocket launchers in the south, calling this “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
A French diplomatic source said reconstruction would not materialize if Israel continues striking and the Lebanese government does not act fast enough on disarmament.
Donors also want Beirut to enact economic reforms.
Hashem Haidar, head of the government’s Council for the South, said the state lacks the funds to rebuild, but cited progress in rubble removal. Lebanon needs $11 billion for reconstruction and recovery, the World Bank estimates.
In Nabatieh, a pile of rubble marks the spot where 71-year-old Khalil Tarhini’s store once stood. It was one of dozens destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Nabatieh’s central market.
He has received no compensation, and sees little point in voting. Expressing a sense of abandonment, he said: “The state did not stand by us.”
The situation was very different in 2006, after a previous Hezbollah-Israel war. Aid flowed from Iran and Gulf Arab states.
Hezbollah says it has aided 400,000 people, paying for rent, furniture and renovations. But the funds at its disposal appear well short of 2006, recipients say.
Hezbollah says state authorities have obstructed funds arriving from Iran, though Tehran is also more financially strapped than two decades ago due to tougher US sanctions and the reimposition of a “maximum pressure” policy by Washington.
As for Gulf states, their spending on Lebanon dried up as Hezbollah became embroiled in regional conflicts and they declared it a terrorist group in 2016. Saudi Arabia has echoed the Lebanese government’s position of calling for a state monopoly of arms.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said it was up to the government to secure reconstruction funding and that it was failing to take “serious steps” to get the process on track.
He warned that the issue risked deepening divisions in Lebanon if unaddressed. “How can one part of the nation be stable while another is in pain?” he said, referring to Shiites in the south and other areas, including Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, hard hit by Israel.