Iran and the Eight-Year War: Missed Opportunities, Unachieved Goals

The eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, which was one of the humanitarian disasters of the last century, came to an end on July 18, 1988, with Iran's acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 598. Now, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq war, we briefly follow the course of this war by posing two questions: Why did the Islamic Republic refuse the ceasefire proposal after the liberation of Khorramshahr? Why was the Islamic Republic forced to accept Resolution 598 by drinking the 'cup of poison' as stated by Ayatollah Khomeini? The war began on September 22, 1980, with a full-scale attack by Saddam's army on Iran. A few months before this attack, there were clear reports and signs of Iraqi troop movements in border areas and their readiness to invade Iran. However, the officials of the Islamic Republic took no measures to counter the potential threats from Iraq, and the Iranian army, which had lost its effectiveness due to the execution, expulsion, dismissal, and purging of many of its senior officers, was unable to take any action. More importantly, the remaining army from the Shah's time was not trusted by the Islamic government, and the Noujeh coup added to the problem. One of the most important features of the Iraqi invasion appeared in Khuzestan province, where Abadan was besieged and Khorramshahr was occupied. Despite being severely weakened in terms of manpower and morale, and consequently neglecting the maintenance of its military equipment, the army quickly regained its cohesion after the foreign enemy entered the homeland and faced the Iraqi forces in very difficult conditions on land, sea, and air, making Saddam Hussein aware of his mistaken belief that the post-revolutionary army was finished. The Iranian Air Force began its counteroffensive one day after Saddam's attack on Iran with Operation Shadow of Alborz (Kaman 99). The Navy fulfilled one of its duties, which was to impose a naval blockade on Iraq, and inflicted heavy damage on Iraq's offshore oil platforms known as Al-Bakr and Al-Amaya. Finally, on November 28, 1980, about ten weeks after the war began, with the execution of 'Operation Pearl', in cooperation with the Air Force, the mentioned platforms were destroyed, and the Iraqi Navy was completely defeated. A year after the war began, the ground forces ended the siege of Abadan with Operation Thamen al-Aimah, followed by three other significant operations: Operation Way of Al-Quds in the general area of Bostan and Susangerd, about 14 months after the Iraqi invasion; Operation Fath al-Mubin in the western regions of Shush and Andimeshk, 18 months after Saddam's aggression against Iran; and finally, Operation Beit al-Muqaddas, which led to the liberation of Khorramshahr on May 24, 1982. Up to the point of Khorramshahr's liberation, the planning of operational plans and the direction of the war were in the hands of the army commanders, although the newly formed Revolutionary Guards and popular forces were also present to assist at the fronts. At this stage of the war, the confrontation with Iraqi forces for the military personnel, including the Navy, was not motivated by their belief in the Islamic government nor did they view the war from an Islamic perspective. Their view and goal was the defense of Iran, rooted in their national pride and patriotism. After the liberation of Khorramshahr, conditions were very favorable for ending the war. Aside from the mediating peace delegations and Security Council Resolution 514, which emphasized establishing a ceasefire and halting military operations, Saddam Hussein also called for a ceasefire and accepted the mentioned resolution. However, the Islamic Republic rejected it and, contrary to the views of the army commanders, insisted on continuing the war. In recent years, many officials of the Islamic Republic and commanders of the Revolutionary Guards have tried to justify the decision to continue the war by reflecting on and understanding the situation. In this regard, Mojtaba Zolnour, a former representative of the Supreme Leader in the Revolutionary Guards, stated: 'No one offered Iran a peace proposal at that time; only the issue of a ceasefire was raised.' While a ceasefire is the first link in the three-link chain of ceasefire, truce, and cessation of hostilities that usually continues from war to peace. The continuation of the war had three strategies for the Islamic Republic: accepting a ceasefire and starting peace negotiations; suspending the war and maintaining a state of neither peace nor war while attempting to overthrow Saddam's regime through Iraqi opposition; and entering Iraqi territory. The Islamic Republic chose the worst option. Officials of the Islamic Republic, including Ayatollah Khomeini, sought to achieve military defeat of Iraq and establish an Islamic government in that country, aiming to go from Karbala to Jerusalem and save Lebanon, and on a broader scale, to impose God's rule on the earth. Additionally, they demanded reparations from Saddam. Therefore, the war with Iraq continued, and in fact, it became Ayatollah Khomeini's war against Saddam Hussein. The management of the war was entrusted to the Revolutionary Guards, and as a result, the planning of calculated and precise operations, systematic preparedness for their execution, including training and logistical support, which was the army's method, diminished, and devotion replaced expertise and military knowledge and experience. Consequently, the Revolutionary Guards often executed operations such as 'Valfajr' and 'Karbala' using human wave attacks without armor and air support, turning the war into a protracted conflict while the promise of a final attack and the defeat of Saddam and 'the victory of truth over falsehood' was repeatedly reiterated. This was while Iraq, benefiting from financial and logistical support from Arab countries in the region, especially Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as support from the Soviet Union and most Western countries, including the United States, had access to advanced military technology and various military equipment from these countries. In this context, the Revolutionary Guards and the army executed Operation Valfajr 8 (the First Battle of Faw) by crossing the Arvand River (Shatt al-Arab) with a calculated and dynamic attack using the principle of surprise, capturing the Faw Peninsula on February 9, 1986. Another relatively successful operation was Karbala 5 in January 1987. The personnel participating in this extensive and costly operation, which was actually the sixth attempt to capture Basra, despite failing to achieve its ultimate goal, captured parts of southern Iraq. One of the secondary objectives of this operation was to connect the forces stationed in the Faw Peninsula with other Iranian forces, which was not achieved. At this time, following these two operations, when the Islamic Republic was in a relatively better position on the ground fronts of the war, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 598 on July 20, 1987. This ten-article resolution called for an 'urgent' ceasefire and withdrawal to internationally recognized borders from both Iran and Iraq, requesting the UN Secretary-General to assign the investigation of the conflict's responsibility to a neutral committee and report the results to the Security Council. The Islamic Republic rejected this resolution, and a week after its issuance, Ayatollah Khomeini stated: 'The fever of war in our country will not subside until the downfall of Saddam, and God willing, we are not far from this goal, and now that we have reached the brink of absolute victory, Saddam and the world’s peace-seekers have become peace-seeking.' While Ayatollah Khomeini insisted on continuing the war, Saddam Hussein, having air superiority primarily due to the significant reduction in the Iranian Air Force's capabilities, ended the fourth round of bombing and missile attacks on Iranian cities (February 1986 - May 1987), known as the War of Cities, which lasted nearly three months. The fifth round, the last phase of the War of Cities, occurred in the winter of 1987. With these attacks, Saddam aimed to show Iran that despite its deep strategic depth, it was vulnerable. Concurrently with the onset of the War of Cities (February 1984), Iraq, unable to export oil from the Persian Gulf due to the naval blockade, launched airstrikes on Iran's oil facilities in the Persian Gulf and attacked oil tankers carrying Iranian export oil. Saddam's objectives were to cripple Iran's economy, force the Islamic Republic to negotiate, and increase the risks for oil exports from the Persian Gulf, hoping to draw Western countries into the war and internationalize it. During the tanker war, Iraq, in addition to leasing five Super Étendard aircraft, received nearly 500 Exocet anti-ship missiles from France. Thus, in 1987, after the issuance of Resolution 598, Iraq intensified its attacks against oil tankers carrying Iranian oil. In response, Iran increased its interception, control, and inspection of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to prevent arms shipments to Iraq and warned Arab countries in the region to stop supporting Saddam. Since Iraq had lost its ability to export oil from the Persian Gulf, Iran redirected its attacks to ships and oil tankers traveling to the ports of Arab countries in the region, especially Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Amid these developments and intensified attacks, Arab countries requested assistance from Western countries, resulting in Britain, France, and the United States increasing their military presence in the Persian Gulf to ensure the free flow of oil to international markets. Throughout 1987, both Iraq and Iran targeted 161 oil tankers and commercial ships. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union, which had increased its support for Iraq, officially entered the field, leasing three of its oil tankers to transport oil exports to Kuwait, while the United States took several Kuwaiti oil tankers under its flag and assigned the responsibility of escorting these vessels to American warships. Iran's response to these actions was mining, which led Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium to send several mine-sweeping vessels and warships to escort oil tankers to the Persian Gulf. At this time, with the shift of the war's center of gravity from land to the Persian Gulf, the war had become completely internationalized. The U.S.-Iran Conflict Iran's mining caused several damages to oil tankers, including a Kuwaiti tanker with an American flag named 'Bridgeton', which was being escorted by an American warship. Following this incident, the U.S. sank the minesweeper 'Iran Ajr' and on October 19, 1987, destroyed two Iranian offshore oil platforms named Rashadat and Resalat, which were used by the Revolutionary Guards to support military operations. Following the damage to the American warship 'Samuel B. Roberts' on April 14, 1988, due to a mine in the vicinity of Kuwait, the U.S. executed an operation known as 'Mantis', destroying the Salman oil platforms and the platforms of the secret island. With the continued conflict in the Persian Gulf and the response of the Iranian Navy, the destroyer 'Sahand' and the missile boat 'Joush' were sunk by American warships and aircraft, and the 'Sahand' was severely damaged. On the day of the naval conflict between Iran and the U.S., April 18, 1988, Iraqi forces, during a 36-hour battle, broke the resistance of Iranian forces in Faw by adhering to the principle of surprise and executing a massive artillery barrage using conventional and chemical shells. This battle was part of five offensive operations by Iraq known as 'Operation Tawakkalna Ala Allah', which continued with battles against Iranian forces in the months of June and July in the Hawizeh Marshes, Majnoon Islands, Dehloran, and Qasr-e Shirin, allowing Iraqi forces to recapture parts of Iranian territory. Acceptance of Resolution 598; Consequences The damages inflicted by the U.S. on Iran in the Persian Gulf and the successive defeats of Iranian forces during 'Operation Tawakkalna Ala Allah', combined with the dire economic situation of the country and the heavy human and non-human losses it had suffered, led the officials of the Islamic Republic to conclude that victory for Iran in this war was impossible. The targeting of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. warship 'Vincennes' also contributed to this conclusion. The tanker war and the reverse oil shock in 1986, which brought the price of a barrel of oil below $10, had reduced Iran's oil revenues in 1986, 1987, and 1988 to nearly half of previous years, amounting to $6.6 billion, $7.7 billion, and $7.4 billion, respectively. Ultimately, the Islamic Republic accepted Resolution 598, and Ayatollah Khomeini announced the 'drinking of the cup of poison' and acceptance of the resolution to the public, following which a ceasefire was established. Throughout the eight-year war, 265,000 Iranians lost their lives, and 400,000 were injured, although different statistics have been presented in this regard. According to Yahya Rahim Safavi, the then-commander of the Revolutionary Guards, from the end of June 1983 until the end of the Iran-Iraq war, 213,000 Iranians were killed, and 320,000 were disabled, of which 45,000 suffer from psychological problems and 100,000 are chemical victims. According to international statistics, the direct and indirect economic damages to Iran during the war are estimated at $627 billion, while the Islamic Republic claims this figure to be $1 trillion. In conclusion, the Islamic Republic did not achieve any of its declared goals: it did not overthrow Saddam's regime; it did not establish an Islamic government in Iraq; it did not force Iraq to pay war reparations; and it did not pave the way to Jerusalem through Karbala. The Iran-Iraq war was catastrophic in social, economic, political, and strategic terms for both sides but fulfilled the main demand of Western countries that 'Iran should not win the war, and Iraq should not lose the war.'