The Iran Iraq War And The Islamic Republic Of Iraq

The Iran Iraq war was a conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq. There are many factors that lead to this conflict, one was Iran’s Pan-Islamism and revolutionary Shia Islamism and Iraq’s Arab nationalism. Initially, the Iraqi government welcomed the Islamic Revolution in Iran due to the fact that Mohammad Rezza Shah Pahlavi was both their enemy. However in June 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for the Iraqi Shiites to overthrow the Ba’ath regime, which was dominated by Arab Sunnis (Gonzalez 185). Sunni Iraqi president Saddam Hussein responded to this call with a Iraqi-Iranian friendship based upon non-interference of internal affairs. This proclamation was ignored by Khomeini and continued his call for

Khomeini and Iran's Islamic revolutionaries despised Hussein’s, Ba’athist regime in particular as un-islamic and a puppet of sata and called on Iraqis to overthrow it. Due to Khomeini’s beliefs, anti Ba’ath riots in the Shia areas of Iraq occurred and the Iranian government extended its support to Iraqi Shia militants working for na Islamic revolution in their country. The repeated calls for the overthrow of the Ba’ath regime and Iranian support of Iraqi Shia militants led Saddam Hussein to increasingly perceive the Iranian regime as mortal threat that could overthrow him (Gonzalez 196). The different views of Sunnis and Shiites towards politics and religion played a big role in this war, in a way that Khomeini is encouraging Shiites in the Arab world to overthrow their Sunni government to gain freedom and stop oppression. It also shows that most Islamic sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites are mainly centered on the issue of politics and

They were cut off from U.S. supplies due to the fact that Iran had a largely U.S.-equipped forces and the shah’s officer were not able to manage to reconstitute effective armored formations or its once large and modern air force (Walker). Iran’s army and Pasdaran revolutionary guards could mount only infantry attacks supported by increasingly strong artillery fire. They took advantage of Iran’s morale and population advantage however, foot infantry could only breach Iraqi defense lines from time to time, and when they could, this was due to large human-wave attacks. Overall, Iranian soldiers were not able penetrate deeply enough to achieve decisive