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Bahrain Impact of the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88
The first major threat to the security of the Persian
Gulf
states followed the outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq
in
1980. The war began after a period of deteriorating
relations
between these two historic rivals, dating from the fall of
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979 and his replacement as
Iranian
leader by Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.
Full-scale
warfare erupted in September 1980 as Iraqi military units
swept
across the Shatt al Arab waterway--which forms the
confluence of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers--into the province of
Khuzestan,
Iran's richest oil-producing area. Iraqi president Saddam
Husayn
hoped to overthrow Khomeini, who had been overtly
attempting to
spread his Islamist (also seen as fundamentalist)
revolution into
Iraq, where the minority regime of
Sunni (see Glossary)
Muslims
ruled over a majority population of Shia Muslims.
By November 1980, the Iraqi offensive had lost its
momentum.
Rejecting an Iraqi offer to negotiate, Khomeini launched a
series
of counteroffensives in 1982, in 1983, and in 1984 that
resulted
in the recapture of the Iranian cities of Khorramshahr and
Abadan. The destruction of huge oil facilities caused both
belligerents sharp declines in oil revenues. Iraq was able
to
obtain substantial financial aid from Saudi Arabia and
other gulf
states. In early 1986, an Iranian offensive across the
Shatt al
Arab resulted in the fall of the Iraqi oil-loading port of
Faw
and the occupation of much of the Faw Peninsula almost to
the
Kuwait border. But the Iranians could not break out of the
peninsula to threaten Basra, and their last great
offensive,
which began in December 1986, was ultimately repelled with
heavy
losses. In the spring of 1988, the freshly equipped Iraqi
ground
and air forces succeeded in retaking the Faw Peninsula
and,
through a succession of frontal assaults, continued into
Iran.
Iranian battlefield losses, combined with Iraqi air and
missile
attacks on Iranian cities, forced Khomeini to accept a
ceasefire , which took effect in August 1988.
Initially, the fighting between Iran and Iraq only
peripherallyaffected the Persian Gulf states. In May 1981,
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE
banded
together in the GCC to protect their interests and, if
necessary,
to defend themselves
(see Collective Security under the Gulf Cooperation Council
, this ch.). In 1984 Iran reacted to
Iraqi air
attacks on Iran's main oil terminal on the island of Khark
by
attacking ships destined for ports in gulf countries that
assisted Iraq's war effort. Iranian links with a coup
attempt in
Bahrain in 1981, Shia terrorist activity in Kuwait, and
Iranianinspired violence in Mecca underscored the conviction of
the Arab
states of the gulf that Iran was the primary threat to
their
security.
Iran stepped up the tanker warfare in early 1987 by
introducing high-speed small craft armed with Italian Sea
Killer
missiles. Kuwait had already sought the protection of
United
States naval escorts through the gulf for reflagged
Kuwaiti
vessels. Determined to protect the flow of oil, the United
States
approved and began tanker convoys in May 1987. Eleven
Kuwaiti
ships--one-half of the Kuwaiti tanker fleet--were placed
under
the United States flag. Other Kuwaiti tankers sailed under
Soviet
and British flags. Although United States escorts were
involved
in a number of clashes with Iranian forces and one tanker
was
damaged by a mine, Iran generally avoided interfering with
Kuwaiti ships sailing under United States protection.
Data as of January 1993
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