On its 40th anniversary ... Know the most prominent stations of the Iran-Iraq war and who is behind its prolongation?

These days pass the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, which is the longest and bloodiest war of the 20th century in the region, which has been described as a painful historical war due to its effects and repercussions on the two countries.

And still the ravages of the war that lasted 8 years (1980-1988), and its psychological and social impacts and repercussions on the two countries.

Analysts and experts believe that the Iran-Iraq war has two dates, an announced date, which is on September 22, 1980, and there is another date, which is the fourth day of the same month, when the Iranian air force penetrated the Iraqi airspace, in addition to the previous skirmishes that occurred on the border posts between the two countries.

The military expert, Ayyad Tufan, confirms that the war, from the point of view of Iraq, began its first features on September 4, 1980, when the Iranian side began to bomb its outposts and their depth, despite the dozens of protest notes that he sent and which are in the drawers of the United Nations.

He pointed out that the Iraqi response to Iran was on September 22, 1980, which marked the beginning of the long war that lasted for 8 years.

This is confirmed by the security expert, Rabih Al-Jawary, who says that the beginning of the war was before September 22, when there was shelling by the Iranian side of the Iraqi border posts, indicating that on that day the Iraqi side began bombing several airports in the Iranian depth.

Al-Jawary believes that the bombing of airfields at the beginning of the war strengthened the Iraqi air advance during the eight-year war.

A flood sees the bombing of cities as one of the fiercest stages of the war (Al-Jazeera)

War stages

The flood of war is divided into 4 basic stages: The first phase was Iraq's response to Iran, and that began on September 22, 1980. As for the second phase, the withdrawal of Iraqi forces to the international border between Iraq and Iran, and it began in 1982. The third - according to the flood - The stage of attrition between the Iraqi army and the Iranian army, the most intense of which is the missile war between the two countries and some important battles such as the Great Harvest, and the Iranian forces' control of the Faw peninsula.

He adds that the fourth stage is what Iraq described as "liberation battles," which began with the battle to regain control of Faw on April 17, 1988, and passed through other battles.

The military expert points out that those battles ended with Iran's acceptance of the ceasefire resolution declared by the United Nations, and thus the war ended.

Terminator stations

The Iran-Iraq war has many details, and several historical battles that were considered stops and turning points in the balance of war and the countries of the region, according to Al-Mahawary.

In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Jawary explains that all types of weapons were used in that war - except for nuclear weapons that were not used in them - but chemical weapons were used, which were very harmful and killed a large number of innocent people.

Regarding the most prominent battles, Al-Jawari adds, the battle of Muhammarah or the Battle of Khorramshahr, as the Iranians call it, which began on September 22, 1980, and lasted about 50 days, and violent confrontations occurred between the armies of the two countries.

Until 1982, the Iraqi army fought its battles inside Iranian territory, as it was in control of most of the border areas between the two countries, but in March of the same year, Iran launched a large-scale attack in Arabistan or Khuzestan - the Iranian oil province bordering Iraq - that regained Muhammarah as a result. Or Khorramshahr.

Baghdad approved a ceasefire, which Tehran rejected, and began withdrawing its forces from inside Iran.

According to Al-Jawary, here a major turn occurred in the balance of war, and the battles moved to the Iraqi borders and territories.

The security expert went on to say, "Among the prominent stations in the war was the Iranian forces' control of the city of Faw in Basra, southern Iraq, in 1986, in addition to their advance in the battles of Penguin in northern Iraq, pointing out that this caused a change in the course of the battles in favor of the Iranian side."

In 1988, the battles began to take another turn, which was the bombing of vital cities by the Iranian side, such as the capital, Baghdad.

The security expert believes that the battle for the Iraqi forces to regain control of the city of Al-Faw in 1988 was considered the "decisive battle" in that long war, considering that it was a qualitative battle in which the Iraqi side managed to regain the city of Faw from the Iranian side within 35 hours, and the Iranian forces incurred great human and material losses. .

Al-Badrani believes that the struggle of Iraq and Iran over influence in the region is among the causes of the war between them (Al-Jazeera)

Main reasons

The war of the 1980s did not have one reason, but one of the most prominent reasons is the border dispute that the two oil-producing countries sought to end through the conclusion of the Algiers Agreement in 1975. The agreement was signed in March of that year, between the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein when he was vice president, and the agreement was dividing the river Shatt al-Arab between the two sides.

On September 17, 1980, Baghdad unilaterally announced the cancellation of the agreement, stressing that the Shatt al-Arab must be Iraqi.

Also, there are several main causes that occurred in that period that led to its outbreak, as the academic and political researcher Fadel Al-Badrani believes that one of these reasons is that there was a regional pole representing Iran, and there was an Arab country, Iraq, which began to strengthen and rise, and it is next to it. Iran did not want to be a rival power in the region.

Al-Badrani adds, also one of the reasons is that there is a new regime that took power in Iran - after the Islamic revolution in 1979 - different from the previous regime, and on the other hand there was a new regime in Iraq - after Saddam Hussein took over the presidency of Iraq - which is also different from its predecessor. , In terms of state and country leadership.

Al-Badrani points out in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the war was very strong, and it had nutrients that led to its outbreak and the extension of its fire, which are American, French and several Western countries, in addition to the presence of Arab countries that stood with one of the parties, and supported it on the basis of political positions and ideologies between those countries.

For his part, the security expert Rabih Al-Jawari believes that the Iranian side carried out several provocations that were among the reasons for the outbreak of the war, including artillery bombardment on some of the villages and Iraqi regions, as well as exposure to Iraqi ships in the Persian Gulf.

An Iranian soldier tries to take cover during Iraqi bombing in the first months of the war (Getty Images)

Losses of both parties

The Iran-Iraq war resulted in great human losses, and according to experts and researchers, there are great economic losses in terms of stopping oil exports, destroying oil wells, destroying vital and economic facilities, and stopping trade in the two countries in the Arab Gulf region and international waters.

Regarding that, Al-Jawary says that this war has caused heavy losses, as it resulted in the deaths of about one million people on both the Iraqi and Iranian sides, in addition to two million injuries and permanent disability.

In addition, it was a costly war that depleted the funds of the two countries, and caused a great retreat and devastation of the economy of both sides, and the slave women showed that the Iraqi and Iranian losers at all levels in this long war were the Iraqi and Iranian parties, due to the wrong policy of the governments of the two countries during that period.

For his part, Flood affirms that the war is one of the longest wars in the modern era, and there is no victorious party in it at all because the amount of sacrifices was so great.

It shows that the material losses in Iraq amounted to 251 billion dollars, while the Iranian losses amounted to 653 billion dollars, in addition to the losses of the two sides in lives, missing persons, war disabled and psychological conditions, especially among prisoners of war.

International interests

Al-Badrani points out that there is a relationship to that war with the influence of the United States in the region, explaining that Washington was planning for the warring countries to be hot and soft, and to be the area on which the American military industrial community could rely on to feed these countries with weapons.

It is believed that there are international plans that have taken place since the outbreak of that war, and the map was drawn for them to enter America and serve the interests and Israeli presence in the region, in order to create an enemy for the Arab countries - which is Iran - instead of its enemy Israel, according to Al-Badrani.

According to security expert Rabih Al-Jawary, Iraq and Iran had been importing weapons from the Soviet Union and the United States for the past eight years.

He adds that these two wings - the Russian and the American - are involved in igniting this war as it serves them economically greatly, by marketing their weapons to both sides, and the resulting recovery of their economy.

On the effects and repercussions caused by the war on the region, Al-Badrani believes that countries have been severely affected and affected, noting that the region is one of the hot spots because it contains economic and human resources, especially in these two countries, Iraq and Iran.

He adds that after the end of the war and the victory of Iraq, which was prepared for him from Western countries, which gave him a measure of self-esteem, until that pushed him to enter Kuwait, and then the political map in the country and the region changed, according to Al-Badrani.

The academic and political researcher considers that the entry of Iraq to Kuwait was one of the most prominent repercussions of the Iran-Iraq war on the region, pointing out that Western countries were behind this to ignite the fuse of another war, to be this time inside the Arab body.