Iraq Invades Iran

September, 22, 1980 A.D.:
Iraq Invades Iran

By: Mir M.Hosseini

In the midst of a hostage crisis with the United States and covert efforts to overthrow the new revolutionary regime, Iraq invades Iran thus commencing an eight year devastating war, primarily on the grounds that in 1969, Iran voided the 1937 agreement with Iraq on the control of the Arvand river and demanded that the terms be renegotiated. As a divide-and-rule policy, the Britain had planted seeds of dispute all over the region. The Iraq-Iran war in which chemical weapons were used led to an estimated 500,000 to one million casualties. Khomeini rejected diplomatic initiatives and called for the overthrow of Iraq's president But the Arab and western countries sided with Iraq and supported the Saddam regime financially and militarily while Iran was under a trade embargo by the US. However, Iranian forces were able to push the Iraqi troops back to the original borders before the war. On July 3, 1988, a U.S. warship shot down an Iran-Air civilian aircraft, killing all aboard. That same month, Iran agreed to end the war.