page_title: Iran–Iraq War
section_title: Iraq
hierarchical_section_title: Iran–Iraq War / Foreign support to Iraq and Iran / Iraq
caption_attribution_description: English: Iraqi helicopter Mil Mi-24 which has been abandoned during the Iran–Iraq War in an exposition of a Military museum in Tehran Русский: Иракский вертолет ru:Ми-24, брошенный иракской армией во время Ирано-иракской войны и выставленный в качестве трофея в Военном музее в Тегеране
context_page_description: The Iran–Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began on 22 September 1980 when Iran was invaded by neighbouring Iraq. The war lasted almost eight years, ending in a stalemate on 20 August 1988 when Iran accepted a UN-brokered ceasefire. Iraq's rationale for the invasion was primarily to cripple Iran and prevent Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exporting the 1979 Iranian Revolution movement to Shia-majority Iraq and threaten the Sunni-dominated Ba'athist leadership. Iraq had also wished to replace Iran as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf, which had not been previously possible due to pre-revolutionary Iran's goliath status in both economic and military terms as well as its close alliances with the United States and Israel. The war followed a long-running history of border disputes, as a result of which Iraq had planned to annex Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan Province and the east bank of the Shatt al-Arab.
  Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of Iran's post-revolutionary chaos and expected a decisive victory in the face of a weakened Iran, the Iraqi military only made progress for three months, and by December 1980 the invasion had stalled.
context_section_description: According to the Stockholm International Peace Institute, the Soviet Union, France, and China together accounted for over 90% of the value of Iraq's arms imports between 1980 and 1988.
  The United States pursued policies in favour of Iraq by reopening diplomatic channels, lifting restrictions on the export of dual-use technology, overseeing the transfer of third-party military hardware, and providing operational intelligence on the battlefield. France, which from the 1970s had been one of Iraq's closest allies, was a major supplier of military hardware. The French sold weapons equal to $5 billion, which comprised well over a quarter of Iraq's total arms stockpile. Citing French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur as the primary source, but also quoting French officials, the New York Times reported France had been sending chemical precursors of chemical weapons to Iraq, since 1986. China, which had no direct stake in the victory of either side and whose interests in the war were entirely commercial, freely sold arms to both sides.
  Iraq also made extensive use of front companies, middlemen, secret ownership of all or part of companies all over the world, forged end-user certificates, and other methods to hide what it was acquiring. Some transactions may have involved people, shipping, and manufacturing in as many as 10 countries. Support from Great Britain exemplified the methods by which Iraq would circumvent export controls. Iraq bought at least one British company with operations in the United Kingdom and the United States, and had a complex relationship with France and the Soviet Union, its major suppliers of actual weapons. Turkey took action against the Kurds in 1986, alleging they were attacking the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which prompted a harsh diplomatic intervention by Iran, which planned a new offensive against Iraq at the time and were counting on the support of Kurdish factions.    
  The United Nations Security Council initially called for a cease-fire after a week of fighting while Iraq was occupying Iranian territory, and renewed the call on later occasions. However, the UN did not come to Iran's aid to repel the Iraqi invasion, and the Iranians thus interpreted the UN as subtly biased in favour of Iraq.
caption: An Iraqi Mil Mi-24 on display at the military museum of Sa'dabad Palace in Iran
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