The conflict known as the Iran-Iraq War took place between 1980 and 1988. From a historical perspective, the rivalries that culminated in the Iran-Iraq War are linked to one of the stages of the ancient Arab-Persian conflict for control of the fertile lands of the Plain of Mesopotamia. The two countries, which share borders in common, are located in the Mesopotamia region, the scene of numerous territorial disputes since antiquity, having been populated by civilizations such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Arabs. The greatest element of these disputes is of a natural order: the configuration of the relief, in flat areas and with the presence of fertile soils, which favors agricultural practice and also due to its hydrographic network formed by large perennial rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers stand out, something rare in an area where arid and semi-arid.
Just before the beginning of the conflict, in the year 1979, Iran went through a huge political transformation known as the Islamic Revolution, when religious organizations associated with leftist parties relied on popular support to overthrow the shah's pro-Western regime (title offered to the Persian monarchs) Reza Pahlevi, establishing an Islamic theocratic state and in opposition to the political presence of Western and of Israel. The majority of the Iranian population and the regime inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini had a Shiite religious orientation, a division of Islam that encompasses about 10% of the world's Islamic population, but which are a majority in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain.
Iraq, in the late 1960s, created a nationalist government through the Baath party, with Saddam Takriti Hussein as one of its main representatives. Saddam was the country's vice president from 1968 until 1979, when he finally assumed the country's presidency. Despite being secular, Saddam Hussein's regime, which belonged to the Sunni sect, imposed restrictions on the majority of the population, composed of Shiites, who suffered from repression, land confiscation and limitations to the practice religious. The Kurds, another ethnic group that exists in the region, also had to submit to various retaliations.
At that time, both Iraq and Iran had societies that counted on the gains of a decade of economic growth based on oil production, in addition to great military power, presenting enormous potential for economic and social growth. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, even though he had made significant progress in developing an Iraqi state, believed that Iran's new leadership was revolutionary. Shiite threatened the balance of Iraq and its Sunni government by exploiting Iraq's geostrategic vulnerabilities, such as its minimal access limitations to the Gulf. Persian.
Returning to the point of view of the evolution of territorialities present in the region, Saddam Hussein's stance in invading Iran had a precedent historical: the rulers of Mesopotamia, fearing internal conflicts and the invasions of foreign peoples, were involved several times in battles frequent with the peoples of the so-called 'highlands', a reference to the mountainous and plateau surroundings of the area corresponding to the Plain of Mesopotamia.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/a-guerra-ira-iraque.htm
