The Iran-Iraq War,1980-1988
-A Shiite revolution takes place in Iran and the Shah is replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini
-This concerned the Sunni leader, Saddam Hussein in Iraq
-Khomeini was very anti-American so they supported Iraq
-War breaks out in the fear that the revolution would spread to Iraq (really a war of religion even though they both claimed territory of each others)
-UN gets involved in 1988 and a formal treaty is signed with no gains in 1990
-This concerned the Sunni leader, Saddam Hussein in Iraq
-Khomeini was very anti-American so they supported Iraq
-War breaks out in the fear that the revolution would spread to Iraq (really a war of religion even though they both claimed territory of each others)
-UN gets involved in 1988 and a formal treaty is signed with no gains in 1990
summery
No real gains by other side. Started by Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in September 1980, the war was marked by indiscriminate ballistic-missile attacks, extensive use of chemical weapons and attacks on third-country oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Although Iraq was forced on the strategic defensive, Iran was unable to reconstitute effective armored formations for its air force and could not penetrate Iraq’s borders deeply enough to achieve decisive results.