THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR AND THE ROLE OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI
Abstract: A year after the
Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War started on September 1980. At first, most
countries treated this war as nothing more than border skirmishes between two
neighbouring countries but surprisingly it became a major challenge and lasted for
eight years. The war finally ended when both Iraq and Iran accepted UN
Resolution 598 in August 1988. This ended the eight-year of Persian Gulf War,
the longest and bloodiest conflict between two Third World states after the
Second World War. On the afternoon of September 23, 1980, following a series of
air strikes on Iranian airfields, the Iraqi army crossed the border into
neighboring Iran, igniting a war that lasted for eight years. The main thrust
of the invasion aimed at capturing Iraqi-claimed land on Iran’s side of the
Shatt al-Arab waterway and parts of Iran’s oil-rich southwest province of
Khuzestan. Iraq’s superior military technology and coordination proved
disastrous to Iranian defences, which were already in the midst of the
Ayatollah Khomeini-led purges that had decimated the regular military’s officer
corps and destroyed its institutional cohesion in the aftermath of the
revolution. In the last years of the war, there were indicators that Iran’s
soldiers were unwilling and unable to continue the fight because the war aims
were not achieved and had lost a string of military battles in some warfront
zones. Therefore, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani they took a risk in persuading
the Ayatollah Khomeini to accept the ceasefire. This article examines the role
of Ayatollah Khomeini, during the Iran-Iraq War.
Author: Mehdi Soltanzadeh, Mohammad
Redzuan Othman
Kode Jurnal: jpsejarah&umumgg130004
