What caused the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s? In your opinion....?

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maddyoh

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I'm thinking about writing an essay on this topic for school. What exactly provoked this war, or was it just Saddam Hussein acting as a provoker for warefare? (This would be my question)

Any help would really, really be appreciated
 
In 1979 there was the Islamic revolution in Iran led by Khomeini.
Saddam was scared of him because he tried to make every Arabic country fall into islamism.Saddam Hussein was a Muslim but he was modern, and the big two supported him when he attacked Iran. The war found an end in 1988 with 1 million of dead
 
There were many reasons for Iran-Iraq war. Besides territorial disputes, the 1979 revolution of Iran and the US and her allies’ hostility are the most important. Mr. Khomeini and his team wanted to spread their revolution around the Islamic world. They eyed two closest neighbours, Iraq and Pakistan to export their revolution and parties were created there by the Shiites. They revolted firs in Iraq which Saddam Husain had to suppress with power. This naturally enraged Iranian revolutionists. The US and her allies were already angry over the overthrown of the govt. of Raza Shah, their the then best ally and trust worthy person in the oil-rich region. They provoked and encouraged Saddam to invade Iran, assuring their full material and moral support. Saddam too realising the future threat advanced an attack giving the reason the custody of Shatt-al-Arab. The war lasted eight years because the big powers wanted so. Finally both the parties realised the situation and agreed to end the war. It was the time when Soviet Union has already reached to a complete defeat in Afghanistan and had no courage to play any role in the world politics.
 
I think it was the Shiite vs Sunni conflict in Islam.

Also, for Middle East hegemony. Now with Iraq out of contention, Iran is the mightiest power in the Islamic world.
 
Basically Saddam was trying to gain more territory from an enemy he felt could not adequately defend itself. Just like he did in Kuwait in 1990. But in both cases he faced stiffer opposition than he expected. In the first case Iran fought back much harder than expected and in the second the whole world jumped to the defense of Kuwait.
 
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