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Description
In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Saddam Hussein to power both in 1979, tensions between Iran and Iraq escalated over border disputes and concerns in the Iraqi government of Iran exporting its Shia Muslim revolution to Iraqi Shiites. In 1980 Iraq launched all-out war against Iran, it claimed this was justified because that the new Iranian government had violated the terms of the 1975 Algiers Accords between Iran and Iraq over settlement of the borders over the strategic Shatt-al-Arab waterway and that the border clashes were acts of aggression by Iran that could no longer be tolerated. The issue of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway had been a contentious issue between Iran and Iraq for years with an earlier attempted resolution of the matter in 1937. The timing of the war is widely believed to have been to attack and force territorial concessions from Iran at a time before its new government could consolidate.

It is believed that though the Iraqi military was well armed and prepared, the failure to concentrate on a core military objective cost Iraq the advantage it had and resulted in the Iran-Iraq War becoming a long protracted war of attrition with heavy casualties on both sides. The nature of the war of attrition and high casualties on both sides and the nature of the conflict (including chemical warfare) led observers to compare it as similar to World War I. Iran supported pro-Iranian Kurdish separatists and Shiite Iraqi opponents of the government in Iraq while Iraq supported pro-Iraqi Khuzestan Arab separatists in Iran and Iranian opponents to the government in Iran. As both countries were major oil producers, the two superpowers watched on cautiously with the Soviet Union and the United States sending warships into the Persian Gulf to stop attacks on tankers, especially attacks by Iran on Iraqi and Kuwaiti tankers, (Kuwait at this time supported Iraq because of Iranian efforts to blockade Iraqi tankers interrupting Kuwaiti oil shipping).

In the end what had been planned as a quick war to force concessions from what was perceived to be a new and weak Iranian government and to prevent the spread of similar Shia Muslim revolutionary tendencies into Iraq, strengthened the Iranian government by making the government appear as patriotically defending Iran from an Iraqi invasion. Iraq was driven into war debts and with a large built up army that had been given support by both the United States and the Soviet Union decided to use its force in combination with seeming United States diplomatic indifference to Arab-to-Arab disputes decided to launch what was assumed would be a quick and decisive war to seize oil-rich Kuwait and annex it to Iraq. The decision created fear by Saudi Arabia of potential future Iraqi aggression towards their oil fields near Kuwait and ultimately brought the United States and its allies to intervene against Iraq in the Gulf War.

Description
In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution and the rise of Saddam Hussein to power both in 1979, tensions between Iran and Iraq escalated over border disputes and concerns in the Iraqi government of Iran exporting its Shia Muslim revolution to Iraqi Shiites. In 1980 Iraq launched all-out war against Iran, it claimed this was justified because that the new Iranian government had violated the terms of the 1975 Algiers Accords between Iran and Iraq over settlement of the borders over the strategic Shatt-al-Arab waterway and that the border clashes were acts of aggression by Iran that could no longer be tolerated. The issue of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway had been a contentious issue between Iran and Iraq for years with an earlier attempted resolution of the matter in 1937. The timing of the war is widely believed to have been to attack and force territorial concessions from Iran at a time before its new government could consolidate.

It is believed that though the Iraqi military was well armed and prepared, the failure to concentrate on a core military objective cost Iraq the advantage it had and resulted in the Iran-Iraq War becoming a long protracted war of attrition with heavy casualties on both sides. The nature of the war of attrition and high casualties on both sides and the nature of the conflict (including chemical warfare) led observers to compare it as similar to World War I. Iran supported pro-Iranian Kurdish separatists and Shiite Iraqi opponents of the government in Iraq while Iraq supported pro-Iraqi Khuzestan Arab separatists in Iran and Iranian opponents to the government in Iran. As both countries were major oil producers, the two superpowers watched on cautiously with the Soviet Union and the United States sending warships into the Persian Gulf to stop attacks on tankers, especially attacks by Iran on Iraqi and Kuwaiti tankers, (Kuwait at this time supported Iraq because of Iranian efforts to blockade Iraqi tankers interrupting Kuwaiti oil shipping).

In the end what had been planned as a quick war to force concessions from what was perceived to be a new and weak Iranian government and to prevent the spread of similar Shia Muslim revolutionary tendencies into Iraq, strengthened the Iranian government by making the government appear as patriotically defending Iran from an Iraqi invasion. Iraq was driven into war debts and with a large built up army that had been given support by both the United States and the Soviet Union decided to use its force in combination with seeming United States diplomatic indifference to Arab-to-Arab disputes decided to launch what was assumed would be a quick and decisive war to seize oil-rich Kuwait and annex it to Iraq. The decision created fear by Saudi Arabia of potential future Iraqi aggression towards their oil fields near Kuwait and ultimately brought the United States and its allies to intervene against Iraq in the Gulf War.