An Iranian soldier guards Iraqi prisoners of war in Ahvaz, Iran, on January 22, 1987. AFP
An Iranian soldier guards Iraqi prisoners of war in Ahvaz, Iran, on January 22, 1987. AFP
Iranian prisoners of war north of Basra on March 18, 1985, after a foiled offensive by Iranian troops. AFP
Iranian prisoners of war north of Basra on March 18, 1985, after a foiled offensive by Iranian troops. AFP
Iraqi soldiers celebrate their victory over Iran in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqi soldiers celebrate their victory over Iran in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP
An Iraqi soldier flashes a victory sign near Al Howeizah swamps, north of Basra city, on March 18, 1985. AFP
An Iraqi soldier flashes a victory sign near Al Howeizah swamps, north of Basra city, on March 18, 1985. AFP
An Iranian mother hugs her son in Tehran following his release from an Iraqi prison, on August 1, 1989. AFP
An Iranian mother hugs her son in Tehran following his release from an Iraqi prison, on August 1, 1989. AFP
Iraqi soldiers pose in front of a mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of southern Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqi soldiers pose in front of a mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the strategic Al Faw peninsula of southern Iraq on April 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqis in Baghdad celebrate the ceasefire between Iraq and Iran on August 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqis in Baghdad celebrate the ceasefire between Iraq and Iran on August 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqi soldiers wave near a tank after the destruction of Iranian positions in the Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, April 20, 1988. AFP
Iraqi soldiers wave near a tank after the destruction of Iranian positions in the Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, April 20, 1988. AFP
Iranian revolutionary guards celebrate their victory over Iraqi troops in Iraq's Bovarian Island, near Basra, on January 23, 1987. AFP
Iranian revolutionary guards celebrate their victory over Iraqi troops in Iraq's Bovarian Island, near Basra, on January 23, 1987. AFP
Iranian anti-aircraft artillery and captured Iraqi hardware in the Iraqi Al Faw peninsula, on February 17, 1986, AFP.
Iranian anti-aircraft artillery and captured Iraqi hardware in the Iraqi Al Faw peninsula, on February 17, 1986, AFP.
Iraqi soldiers as they regained the Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. Al Faw was scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Iran-Iraq war. AFP
Iraqi soldiers as they regained the Al Faw peninsula of south Iraq on April 20, 1988. Al Faw was scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the Iran-Iraq war. AFP
Firefighting vessels on the Singapore-flagged tanker Norman Atlantic after an Iranian attack near the Strait of Hormuz on December 6, 1987. AFP
Firefighting vessels on the Singapore-flagged tanker Norman Atlantic after an Iranian attack near the Strait of Hormuz on December 6, 1987. AFP
Former Iranian military bunkers in the southern Iraqi region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP
Former Iranian military bunkers in the southern Iraqi region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP
A destroyed mosque in Iraq's southern Al Faw peninsula on September 17, 2020. AFP
A destroyed mosque in Iraq's southern Al Faw peninsula on September 17, 2020. AFP
An Iraqi soldier at Al Rahman mosque, built in 1989, on the southern region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP
An Iraqi soldier at Al Rahman mosque, built in 1989, on the southern region of Al Faw on September 17, 2020. AFP
A US Navy minesweeping helicopter leads the way for a US reflagged Kuwaiti tanker convoy, on October 22, 1987, in the Arabian Gulf. AFP
A US Navy minesweeping helicopter leads the way for a US reflagged Kuwaiti tanker convoy, on October 22, 1987, in the Arabian Gulf. AFP
Firefighting vessels extinguish flames on the Singapore-flagged Norman Atlantic after it was attacked by an Iranian warship in Omani territorial waters, on December 6, 1987. AFP
Firefighting vessels extinguish flames on the Singapore-flagged Norman Atlantic after it was attacked by an Iranian warship in Omani territorial waters, on December 6, 1987. AFP

World

Iraq-Iran war: a legacy of carnage that shaped the Middle East for 40 years

Up to a million people were killed in the conflict over turf and ideology, but it is still used as justification for Tehran’s quest to maintain its sway on Baghdad

Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Jordan

September 22, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Every Friday, trucks brought the bodies of soldiers from the front lines to the police station in the southern Iraqi town of Samawa.

Thousands of parents would rush to see if their sons were among the dead.

Many, remembers a doctor who served in the town during the brutal Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, would emerge jubilant and laughing.

“They were so glad that they did not identify their sons among the dead,” she said from northern Iraq where she now lives.

But by the end of years of brutal war – fought with guns, bombs and poisonous gas in trenches, sometimes at close range – almost everyone was affected in Iraq.

“Eventually, almost every single household in Iraq had lost a member in the war,” the doctor said.

Forty years ago, on September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army thrust into the south western Iranian province of Khuzestan, after skirmishes between the two sides and Iraqi complaints of what Baghdad viewed as Iranian incursions into disputed border regions.

It became one of the most devastating conflicts between two nations since the Second World War.

Five months before the guns started firing, Saddam executed Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir Al Sadr after the prominent Iraqi theologian expressed support for the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The fall of the shah and the rise of a Shiite religious theocracy next door was seen by Saddam as the main threat to his mostly Sunni rule.

In the process, a generation was traumatised on both sides and up to a million people were killed. It wasn't just the soldiers who died. The two countries used ballistic missiles to hammer civilian targets in what became known as the “war of the cities.”

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sent boy soldiers, amped up on religious fervour clutching plastic keys to paradise in “human waves" towards Iraqi front lines, saying that they were going to liberate Jerusalem.

Saddam employed chemical weapons. Some were used to neutralise Iranian numerical superiority but well away from the fighting, his air force killed 5,000 when it also gassed Halabja, the Kurdish city in northern Iraq.

Journalists taken by the Iraqi military to the front lines would recall not being able to see the colour of the sky for miles because it was lit by artillery fire, and would describe scenes reminiscent of trench warfare in the First World War.

The Iran-Iraq war mostly transformed by its second and third year, from Iraqi advancements to retreats, and to Iran making inroads into Iraq. It ended in a stalemate, and a ceasefire, in August 1988.

As the tide turned, Saddam portrayed the war as a defence of the motherland, pitting Arabs against Persian invaders and Iraq as the eastern flank of the Arab world. But on the barren borderlands, the mostly Shiite rank and file continued to fight fiercely against their Iranian coreligionists.

Patriotic songs glorifying the homeland dominated the airwaves, somewhat tempering Saddam’s personality cult.

Iraqi painter and sculptor Ismail Fattah was commissioned to design the Martyr Monument in Baghdad, a rare public venue free from Saddam’s photos since it opened in 1983.

The monument comprises two huge blue hearts almost facing each other. Etched underneath on concrete walls are names of the thousands of Iraqi soldiers killed in the war.

In southern Iraq, for years later Saddam’s posters remained conspicuously absent from the Al Faw peninsula, although the Iraqi Republican Guards regained the territory in April 1988 after Iran occupied it for two years.

"Slow down and be gentle when walking in Al Faw. It is the land where the blood of 52,846 Iraqis was spilt," a placard at the entrance to the peninsula reads.

While a chapter in the history of two nations written in carnage, it is a conflict that has and continues to shape the Middle East today. For many, it is not history at all.

During the conflict, Iran’s current president, Hassan Rouhani, was one of the main war planners. Sitting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was president.

Diplomats recount that in numerous meetings behind closed doors with their Iranian counterparts in recent years, Iranian officials keep bringing up the war.

The pain of the staggering loss of Iranian lives, often due to the poor training, equipment and tactics of the military, has led Tehran to pursue an unconventional deterrence.

Aware it is unable to dominate with regular armies against its neighbour – or more recently against superpowers like America – Iran has cultivated and created powerful proxy forces, and became skilled in sabotage, subterfuge and subtlety. It engages political meddling, cultural outreach and, for when all else fails, Tehran has a domestic drone and ballistic missile programme. Both of these have been provided to their proxies from Yemen to Lebanon to be used against Iran's foes.

Then there is its nuclear programme. While Tehran has insisted for years that it is for peaceful means, the enrichment of uranium has led to years of sanctions, weapons inspections and political isolation.

But even as Iran clashes on the world stage with America, Tehran's eyes have never left Baghdad.

Iranian officials have justified their networks of overlapping and interlaced Shiite militia clients in Iraq by saying that they cannot allow Iraq to ever again be a launch pad for what they see as Sunni aggression.

Many secular Shiite Iraqi officers who fought in the war later defected to Iran and Europe. But many returned to Iraq when the US-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003.

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They wanted to be on the vanguard of a nation they wanted to be free of the destructive Baathist ideology of Saddam as well as the Khomeinist militancy.

Among those officers was Tawfiq Al Yassiri, the grandson of one of the leaders of the 1920 uprising against British rule.

Al Yassiri fought, unsuccessfully in the end, to seperate the army from politics in the post-Saddam era and founded a movement comprised mainly of war veterans for that purpose.

Before he died of the coronavirus in June this year, Al Yassiri said that the Iran-Iraq war taught him wisdom and respect for human rights.

“Saddam, driven by sectarian hatred, wanted to destroy as much of Iran as he could,” Al Yassiri said. “He also destroyed Iraq."

But men like Al Yassiri seeking to build a new Iraq were constantly undermined by Shiite militia warlords and their political associates who have left the country a hyper-partisan quagmire of poor governance where powerful gunmen feel they can act with impunity.

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March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi  

March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi 

March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore

March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi

March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi

April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi

April 5: T20I, Rawalpindi

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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding

Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.

Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.

Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.

For more details, email openminds@cultures.ae or visit www.cultures.ae

 

W.
Wael Kfoury
(Rotana)

more from Janine di Giovanni
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Florida: The critical Sunshine State

Though mostly conservative, Florida is usually always “close” in presidential elections. In most elections, the candidate that wins the Sunshine State almost always wins the election, as evidenced in 2016 when Trump took Florida, a state which has not had a democratic governor since 1991. 

Joe Biden’s campaign has spent $100 million there to turn things around, understandable given the state’s crucial 29 electoral votes.

In 2016, Mr Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton paid frequent visits to Florida though analysts concluded that she failed to appeal towards middle-class voters, whom Barack Obama won over in the previous election.

On Women's Day
Kareem Shaheen on Canada
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency
Barings Bank

 Barings, one of Britain’s oldest investment banks, was
founded in 1762 and operated for 233 years before it went bust after a trading
scandal. 

Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995 following colossal
losses caused by rogue trader Nick Lesson. 

Leeson gambled more than $1 billion in speculative trades,
wiping out the venerable merchant bank’s cash reserves.  

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-finals, second leg:

Liverpool (0) v Barcelona (3), Tuesday, 11pm UAE

Game is on BeIN Sports

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Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea
Company%20Profile
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F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

Fire and Fury
By Michael Wolff,
Henry Holt

2019 Asian Cup final

Japan v Qatar
Friday, 6pm
Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Gender pay parity on track in the UAE

The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.

"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."

Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.

"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.

As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general. 

While you're here
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULTS

Argentina 4 Haiti 0

Peru 2 Scotland 0

Panama 0 Northern Ireland 0

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

While you're here
Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation. 

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.

Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

Zayed Sustainability Prize
Kill%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nikhil%20Nagesh%20Bhat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Lakshya%2C%20Tanya%20Maniktala%2C%20Ashish%20Vidyarthi%2C%20Harsh%20Chhaya%2C%20Raghav%20Juyal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.5%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
While you're here
While you're here
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The BIO:

He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal

He ascended Mount Everest the next year from the more treacherous north Tibetan side

By 2015, he had completed the Explorers Grand Slam

Last year, he conquered K2, the world’s second-highest mountain located on the Pakistan-Chinese border

He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push

His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
IranIraq

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