1. September 1980 ~ August 1988 YuDi. Xie

2. The Iran-Iraq war, a long-term armed conflict between the Iran and Iraqi throughout 1980s. Iraqi triggered the war on September 22 1980 The border between two countries were never in peace. Accept a ceasefire called by UNSC after eight years. Biggest conflicts in final years of the Cold War. Child Soldier at the Iranian front

3. Main cause was the border dispute Had historical territorial problem around Shatt Al-Arab (Arab river) Another cause is the religious confrontation. Iran was a Shia Muslim country, while Iraq was Sunni Muslim. But Iraq was mainly made up by Shia Muslims. Conflict between Persians and Arabs was a cause too.

4. Shia Islamic Leader of the Iran Leader of Iranian religious revolution in 1979 Led to overthrow the Iranian monarchy Pahlavi Dynasty. Established a theocracy government “The Islamic State of Iran”, and he became the supreme leader Western culture and influence is strongly boycotted in Khomeini’s Iran Shaped nowadays Iran’s International standing Ruhollah Khomeini (1902~1989)

5. Saddam Hussein (1937~2006) Became the leader of Iraq through a coup in 1979. As the supreme leader of Iraq from 1979 to 2006 Nationalized oil industry in Iraq, strengthened Iraq’s economy and military Applied a highly oppressive politic in Iraq Caused wars throughout his regime Dealt many crimes throughout his life.

6. Iranian troops in maneuver A classic combination of modern warfare, human wave tactics, trench warfare, armor conflicts and even missile warfare Iraq stormed Iran first unexpectedly, Iraq got the initiative at the beginning Iran later started counter-attack, pushed Iraq out of their lands Major battles still took place at the frontier Fought for many years of attrition until the end Almost everyone in both countries took part in Ended on 20 August 1988 as a UN ceasefire took effect

7. Iraq anti-ship missile hits US destroyer An important part of the whole war Iran and Iraq launched a total number of 270 missiles on cities like Baghdad and Teheran Major targets were industrial facilities such as oil refinery and power station Missile attacks on cities made a lot of civilians destitute and homeless Also attacked many military and non- military ships with missiles

8. Saddam met with US Donald Rumsfeld America and most of Arabic countries supported Iraq they did not want Iran Islamic revolution expand further Few countries supported Iran, only Syria and Libya, since they had hostile relations with Iraq. Israel supported Iraq to some extents, also because their negative relation with Iraq. The Soviet Union supported Iran because of their opposition to Americans, but they also sell weapons to Iraq

9. The war is extremely destructive, Iraq claimed they had 350,000 men killed or wounded, Iran claimed they had about 300,000 casualties, but foreign estimated that almost 1 million people were killed or wounded in the war. Hundreds of thousands civilians were killed in the war. Other than man casualties, about 500 aircrafts, 4000 tanks were destroyed.

10. Its economic effect was huge, Iran and Iraq spent all their foreign currency reserve, as well as foreign debt. Cost of the war was estimated to be approximately 500 billion US dollars. A lot of oil facilities were destroyed in both countries, that made the economies of these two countries that relied heavily on oil industries, even worse. Directly led to the invasion of Kuwait as a result of the rapid increase of troops, the first gulf war, and later the end of Saddam’s regime. Iran quickly started rebuilding the country, and started mitigating their relations with western countries. Iraq, on the other hand, was getting even worse after the war.