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. 


Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge

Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge
Updated 2 min 15 sec ago
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Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge

Greece, EU to press Libya on migrant crossings as Mediterranean numbers surge
  • Greece recently announced plans to send warships to international waters in the region following a surge in crossings from Libya to the southern Greek island of Crete — a more perilous route than the more frequently used passage between Turkiye and nearby

ATHENS, Greece: The European Union ‘s commissioner for migration says Europe will take a “firm” approach with authorities in Libya following a spike in illegal migration across the Mediterranean.
Commissioner Magnus Brunner plans to travel to Libya next week with government representatives from Greece, Italy and Malta, seeking tougher measures from Libyan authorities to stop boats carrying migrants from leaving for Europe.
“That is actually a question which bothers us quite a lot at the moment. Libya is, of course, at the top of the agenda, and we’re traveling together to Libya next week because we have to be fast, I think, and firm,” Brunner said Tuesday at a conference in Athens.
Brunner, who discussed the upcoming visit at a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said the delegation would meet with representatives from both the United Nations-recognized government in western Libya and a rival authority in the east.
Greece recently announced plans to send warships to international waters in the region following a surge in crossings from Libya to the southern Greek island of Crete — a more perilous route than the more frequently used passage between Turkiye and nearby Greek islands.
In 2023, hundreds died when the fishing trawler Adriana, carrying migrants from Libya to Italy, sank off Greek waters. ___
 

 

 


US won’t send some weapons pledged to Ukraine following a Pentagon review of military assistance

US won’t send some weapons pledged to Ukraine following a Pentagon review of military assistance
Updated 3 min 15 sec ago
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US won’t send some weapons pledged to Ukraine following a Pentagon review of military assistance

US won’t send some weapons pledged to Ukraine following a Pentagon review of military assistance
  • The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some items previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a US official

WASHINGTON: The US is halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said Tuesday.
The munitions were previously promised to Ukraine for use during its ongoing war with Russia under the Biden administration. But the pause reflects a new set of priorities under President Donald Trump.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a (Defense Department) review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran.”
That was a reference to Trump recently ordering US missile strikes against nuclear sites in Iran.
The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some items previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public.
To date, the US has provided Ukraine more than $66 billion worth of weapons and military assistance since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Over the course of the war, the US has routinely pressed for allies to provide air defense systems to Ukraine. But many are reluctant to give up the high-tech systems, particularly countries in Eastern Europe that also feel threatened by Russia.
The halt of some weapons comes after Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine over the weekend, Ukrainian officials said, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts championed by Trump.
The US stoppage was first reported by Politico.
Trump met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit last week and had left open the possibility of sending Kyiv more US-made Patriot air defense missile systems, acknowledging they would help the Ukrainian cause.
“They do want to have the antimissile missiles, OK, as they call them, the Patriots,” Trump said then. “And we’re going to see if we can make some available. We need them, too. We’re supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective, 100 percent effective. Hard to believe how effective. They do want that more than any other thing.”
Those comments reflect a change of thinking about providing weapons to Ukraine across the administration in recent months.
In opening remarks at a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee hearing in June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he has moved quickly to quash wasteful programs and redirect funding to Trump’s top objectives.
Hegseth said a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine, which has been promoted for months by Trump, makes America look strong, even though Moscow is the aggressor in the conflict. He also said the budget includes hard choices and “reflects the reality that Europe needs to step up more for the defense of its own continent. And President Trump deserves the credit for that.”
The defense secretary said during that testimony that some US security spending for Ukraine is still in the pipeline, but provided no details. Hegseth also acknowledged that funding for Ukraine military assistance — which has been robust for the past two years — would be reduced.
“This administration takes a very different view of that conflict,” Hegseth said. “We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests.”
Last month, Hegseth skipped a meeting of an international group to coordinate military aid to Ukraine that the US created three years ago. Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, formed the group after Russia attacked Ukraine, and Hegseth’s absence was the first time the US defense secretary wasn’t in attendance.
Under Austin’s leadership, the US served as chair of the group, and he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended monthly meetings, which were both in person and by video. Hegseth had previously stepped away from a leadership role of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group — turning that over to Germany and the United Kingdom — before abandoning the gathering altogether.


Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns

Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns
Updated 14 min 44 sec ago
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Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns

Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns
  • Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, escalated to fighting in the capital of Khartoum and spread across the country

CAIRO: Millions of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan risk falling deeper into hunger as they seek refuge in countries already grappling with food insecurity, the United Nations warned.
The World Food Program, the UN’s food agency, said Monday that over four million Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries are at risk of suffering further food insecurities as crucial funding for life-saving food assistance is expected to dwindle in the coming months in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda and Chad.
About 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, by Sudan’s civil war that began in April 2023, according to estimates from UN agencies.
Nearly half of the population remaining in Sudan is facing acute food insecurity, with some areas of the country suffering from malnutrition, which has killed 239 children in the past six months in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, the Sudan Doctors Network said.
The group said the children died as a result of severe shortages of food and medicine, and the bombing of nutrition warehouses in the Sudanese province between January and June.
Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, escalated to fighting in the capital of Khartoum and spread across the country.
But those fleeing the conflict continue to suffer from malnutrition even beyond Sudan’s borders.
“Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis. “Food assistance is a lifeline for vulnerable refugee families with nowhere else to turn.”
Food insecurity and famine conditions have spread across Sudan. The Darfur Victims Support Organization on Tuesday posted pictures on Facebook showing scores of citizens lining up to receive a meal from a charity kitchen. The group appealed to international organizations to take notice of the humanitarian situation in the city and called on armed groups to declare a truce and open corridors to deliver much needed civilian aid.
The southern part of El Fasher saw renewed clashes between the army and the RSF Monday morning despite the UN calling for a week-long ceasefire in the city for aid distribution, which the Sudanese army accepted, the Darfur-based group said.
The El Fasher Resistance Committee said Sunday that heavy artillery shelling targeted several residential areas and the livestock market for the third day in a row, killing and injuring civilians amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area.
The Trump administration’s cuts to the US Agency for International Development have also had an impact, with programs being defunded. In Sudan, 90 communal kitchens closed in Khartoum, leaving more than half a million people without consistent access to food, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization.

 


Egyptian driver who killed 19 heads to trial as outrage grows over traffic safety

Egyptian driver who killed 19 heads to trial as outrage grows over traffic safety
Updated 33 min 10 sec ago
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Egyptian driver who killed 19 heads to trial as outrage grows over traffic safety

Egyptian driver who killed 19 heads to trial as outrage grows over traffic safety
  • Egypt’s official statistics agency says 5,260 people died in road accidents last year, compared to 5,861 in 2023 — a 10.3 percent decrease

CAIRO: Egyptian prosecutors on Tuesday referred a driver to trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter after he crashed his truck into a minivan last week, killing 18 girls and their driver.
Friday’s crash on a newly constructed highway stirred up public outrage over the poor transportation safety record in the world’s most populous Arab country. Many, including pro-government commentators and lawmakers, lashed out at the government and called for accountability. Most criticism was directed at Transportation Minister Kamel Al-Wazir, with some calling for his resignation.
A statement from the office of chief prosecutor said the truck driver was accused of abusing drugs and driving the truck without a relevant license.
Prosecutors also requested the court to initiate a misdemeanor procedure against the truck’s owner for allowing the man to drive the vehicle while knowing that he didn’t have the required license.
The trial is scheduled to start on July 8, the statement said.
The truck collided with a microbus — a mass transit minivan — on a highway in the Nile Delta city of Ashmoun. The microbus was carrying girls to a vineyard where they worked as informal laborers.
Three other girls were injured in the crash, according to the Labor Ministry. The crash happened on part of the highway that was under maintenance.
Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt, with many caused by speeding, bad roads or poor enforcement of traffic laws.
Egypt’s official statistics agency says 5,260 people died in road accidents last year, compared to 5,861 in 2023 — a 10.3 percent decrease. But 76,362 were injured in 2024, up from 71,016 the previous year — an increase of 7.5 percent.

 


Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules

Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules
Updated 44 min 5 sec ago
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Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules

Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules
  • Suri, 41, was arrested in Virginia in March and then moved by the US government to Texas, where he was released in May after the ruling by Giles
  • The Trump administration has attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters while accusing them of being antisemitic, threats to American foreign policy and extremist sympathizers

WASHINGTON: A pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student from India, detained by President Donald Trump’s administration but then released on a judge’s order, can remain free while fighting deportation efforts, a US appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the administration’s request that Badar Khan Suri be returned to immigration detention. The 4th Circuit said it found no grounds to overturn the decision by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles to order Suri’s release.
“To allow the government to undermine habeas jurisdiction by moving detainees without notice or accountability reduces the writ of habeas corpus to a game of jurisdictional hide-and-seek,” Judge James Andrew Wynn wrote on Tuesday.
Habeas corpus refers to a procedure under which the legality of a person’s incarceration can be challenged in court.
Suri, 41, was arrested in Virginia in March and then moved by the US government to Texas, where he was released in May after the ruling by Giles. Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, part of the Jesuit university’s School of Foreign Service.
The Trump administration has attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters while accusing them of being antisemitic, threats to American foreign policy and extremist sympathizers. Suri has denied the US government’s allegations that he spread Palestinian militant propaganda and antisemitism on social media. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, have said the US government has conflated criticism of Israel’s military assault in Gaza with antisemitism and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. Human rights advocates have raised free speech and due process concerns over the administration’s actions toward these students. Other pro-Palestinian students who were arrested by the government and subsequently released under judicial orders include Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk.
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a US citizen. Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza. Saleh was not arrested.