Editing Saddam Hussein (section)

=== Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988 ===
{{Main|Iran–Iraq War}}
==== Background ====
[[File:1988 01 29-Rajavi-Saddam-Iran-Liberation.jpeg|left|thumb|Saddam and [[Massoud Rajavi]], the leader of [[People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran]], 1987]]
In early 1979, Iran's Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]'s [[Pahlavi dynasty]] were overthrown by the [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]], thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021">{{Cite web |date=13 July 2021 |title=Iran-Iraq War – Summary, Timeline & Legacy |url=https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war |access-date=14 February 2024 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Saddam feared that the radical Islamic ideas—hostile to his secular rule—were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'ite population.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Despite Saddam's fears of massive unrest, Iran's attempts to [[The policy of exporting the Islamic Revolution|export its Islamic Revolution]] were largely unsuccessful in rallying support from Shi'ites in Iraq and the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf|Gulf states]].<ref name="PIRRR">Esposito, John, "Political Islam Revolution, Radicalism, or Reform", ''Political Islam and Gulf Security'', Lynne Rienner Publishers, {{ISBN|978-1-55587-262-5}}, pp. 56–58</ref> Most Iraqi Shi'ites, who comprised the majority of the Iraqi Armed Forces, chose their own country over their Shi'ite Iranian coreligionists during the war that ensued.<ref name="PIRRR" />

There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the 1970s.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'a holy city of [[Najaf]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'as and developed a strong religious and political following against the Iranian government, which Saddam tolerated.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> When Khomeini began to urge the Shi'ites there to overthrow Saddam and under pressure from the Shah, who had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978 to France.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Here, Khomeini gained media connections and collaborated with a much larger Iranian community, to his advantage.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> After Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway, which divides the two countries.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> During this period, Saddam publicly maintained that it was in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=לרון |first=ד"ר גיא |date=2021-09-23 |title=ואולי סדאם חוסיין היה פחות מטורף ממה שחשבנו |url=https://www-ynet-co-il.translate.goog/news/article/s1xedykxk?_x_tr_sl=iw&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=Ynet |language=he}}</ref>

The outbreak of the [[Iran–Iraq War|war]] in September 1980 was preceded by a long period of tension between the two countries throughout 1979 and 1980, including frequent border skirmishes, calls by Khomeini for the Shia Muslims in Iraq to revolt against the ruling Ba'ath Party, and allegations of Iraqi support for ethnic separatists in Iran.<ref>{{cite book|last=Emery|first=Chris|title=The Iran-Iraq War: New International Perspectives|chapter=Reappraising the Carter Administration's response to the Iran-Iraq war|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0-415-68524-5}}</ref> There were frequent clashes along the Iran–Iraq border throughout 1980, with Iraq publicly complaining of at least 544 incidents and Iran citing at least 797 violations of its border and airspace.<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1107062290|pages=58–59 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref> On 1 April 1980, the [[Islamic Dawa Party]], an Iraqi Islamist group with supportive ties to Iran, attempted to assassinate [[Tariq Aziz]], Iraq's then deputy prime minister at the [[University of Baghdad]] campus, in retaliation for a 30 March decree declaring "membership of Dawa [to be] a capital offense".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1107062290|pages=57–58 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref> On 30 April, Iraq organized [[Iranian Embassy siege|an attack on the Iranian embassy in London]].<ref name="Cambridge University Press"/> On 10 September 1980, Iraq forcibly reclaimed territories in Zain al-Qaws and Saif Saad that it had been promised under the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement but that Iran had never handed over, leading to both Iran and Iraq voiding the treaty, on 14 September and 17 September, respectively.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1107062290|pages=62–63 (e-book, page numbers approximate)|quote=On 7 September 1980, Iraq accused Iran of shelling Iraqi villages in the territories of Zain al-Qaws and Saif Saad on 4 September 1980. Iraq demanded that the Iranian forces in those territories evacuate and return the villages to Iraq. Tehran gave no reply. Iraqi forces then moved to 'liberate' the villages, and on 10 September announced that its forces had done so in a short, sharp military engagement.&nbsp;... On 14 September 1980, Iran announced it would no longer abide by the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Given the scene that was set, it was no surprise that on 17 September, five days before the invasion, Iraq declared the accords null and void.&nbsp;... On 22 September, Iraqi units crossed the frontier.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-link=Kanan Makiya|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq|edition=Updated|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1998|isbn=978-0520921245|page=270}}</ref>

==== Warfare ====
{{Main|Iraqi invasion of Iran}}
[[File:Adnan Khairallah with Saddam.jpg|thumb|[[Adnan Khairallah]] (1940–1989), the Defence Minister, being awarded by Saddam.]]
[[Iraqi invasion of Iran|Iraq invaded Iran]] on 22 September 1980, first [[22 September 1980 Iraqi airstrike on Iran|launching airstrikes on numerous targets in Iran]], including the [[Mehrabad Airport]] of [[Tehran]], before occupying the oil-rich Iranian province of [[Khuzestan province|Khuzestan]], which also has a sizable [[Khuzestani Arabs|Arab minority]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The invasion was initially successful, as Iraq captured more than 25,900&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> of Iranian territory by 5 December 1980.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hiro |first=Dilip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBqJDwAAQBAJ |title=Cold War in the Islamic World: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Struggle for Supremacy |date=1 February 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-005022-1 |pages=97 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Khuzestan and Basra were the main focus of the war, and the primary source of their economies. With the support of other Arab states, the United States, and Europe, and heavily financed by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Saddam became "defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary, fundamentalist Shia Iran. Consequently, many viewed Iraq as "an agent of the civilized world."<ref name="PIRRR" /> He fought Iran mainly to prevent the expansion of Shi'a radicalism.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

The blatant disregard of international law and violations of international borders were ignored.<ref name="PIRRR" /> Instead Iraq received economic and military support from its allies, who overlooked Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Kurds and the Iranians, in addition to Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.<ref name="PIRRR" /> In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from [[human wave attack]]s by Iran.<ref name="PIRRR" /> Meanwhile, Saddam's efforts to develop nuclear weapons faced a setback when Iraq's [[Osirak Nuclear Reactor|nuclear reactor]] was destroyed on 7 June 1981 by an Israeli [[Operation Opera|air strike]].<ref name="Osirak">BBC, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm 1981: Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor], ''BBC On This Day 7 June 1981'' referenced 6 January 2007</ref> By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for ways to end the war.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Iraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive [[Attrition warfare|wars of attrition]] of the 20th century.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> 

During the war, Iraq used [[chemical weapon]]s against Iranian forces fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of Iran.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> [[Tariq Aziz]] later acknowledged [[Iraqi chemical attacks against Iran|Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran]], but said that Iran had used them against Iraq first.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Schmemann |first1=Serge |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=2 July 1988 |title=Iraq Acknowledges Its Use of Gas But Says Iran Introduced It in War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/02/world/iraq-acknowledges-its-use-of-gas-but-says-iran-introduced-it-in-war.html |access-date=16 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The Iranians, demanding that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Despite several [[United Nations Security Council Resolutions concerning Iraq|calls for a ceasefire]] by the [[United Nations Security Council]], hostilities continued until 20 August 1988.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> It was not until 20 July 1988 that Iran accepted [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 598|Resolution 598]], mainly due to poor morale, economic collapse, and Iraq's highly successful [[Tawakalna ala Allah Operations]], which effectively brought the war to an end.<ref name="efraimkarsh">{{cite book |author=Karsh, Efraim |title=The Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988 |date=25 April 2002 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1841763712 |pages=1–8, 12–16, 19–82}}</ref> [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] states: "Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iran-Iraq War |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Iran-Iraq-War |access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref> Neither side had achieved what they had originally desired and the borders were left nearly unchanged.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />
[[File:Iraqi Navy Officers receiving awards in 1988.png|thumb|Navy Commanders receiving awards shortly after the end of the war from Saddam, 1988]]
The southern, oil rich and prosperous areas were almost completely destroyed and were left at pre-1979 border, while Iran managed to make some small gains on its borders in the Northern Kurdish area.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Saddam borrowed tens of billions of dollars from other Arab states and a few billions from elsewhere.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> This backfired on Iraq and Arab states, as Khomeini was widely perceived as a hero by his supporters for managing to defend Iran and maintain the war with little foreign support against the heavily backed Iraq and only managed to boost Islamic radicalism not only within the Arab states, but within Iraq itself, creating new tensions between the Sunni Ba'ath Party and the majority Shi'a population.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and internal resistance, Saddam desperately re-sought cash, this time for postwar reconstruction.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

==== Anfal campaign: 1986–1989 ====
{{Main|Anfal campaign|Halabja massacre}}
[[File:Saddam Hussain Duty Uniform.jpg|thumb|244x244px|Saddam in duty uniform|left]]The [[Anfal campaign]] was a campaign that took place during the war against the [[Kurds|Kurdish people]] and many others in Kurdish regions of Iraq led by the government and headed by [[Ali Hassan al-Majid]]. The campaign takes its name from [[Qur'anic chapter 8]] (''al-ʾanfāl''), which was used as a [[code name]] by the administration for a series of attacks against the ''peshmerga'' rebels and the mostly Kurdish civilian population of rural Northern Iraq, conducted between 1986 and 1989 culminating in 1988.<ref name=":11">[https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/08/14/genocide-iraq-anfal-campaign-against-kurds] The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds. A Middle East Watch Report: Human Rights Watch 1993.</ref> The campaign was in retaliation to Kurd's support for Iran and their rebellion.<ref name=":11" /> This campaign also targeted [[Shabak people|Shabaks]] and [[Yazidi]]s, [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Iraqi Turkmen|Turkoman people]] and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed.<ref name=":11" /> Human Rights Watch estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Iraqi Anfal, Human Rights Watch, 1993 |url=https://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ |access-date=20 September 2013 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref> It considers the campaign as an act of genocide.<ref name=":11" /> Some Kurdish sources put the number higher, estimating that 182,000 Kurds were killed.<ref>{{cite web |date=15 May 2005 |title=Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurds |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202235943/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html |archive-date=2 December 2008 |access-date=20 September 2013 |publisher=Jafi.org.il}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Burns |first=John F. |author-link=John Fisher Burns |date=26 January 2003 |title=How Many People Has Hussein Killed? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/weekinreview/the-world-how-many-people-has-hussein-killed.html |access-date=20 February 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |quote=The largest number of deaths attributable to Mr. Hussein's regime resulted from the war between Iraq and Iran between 1980 and 1988, which was launched by Mr. Hussein. Iraq says its own toll was 500,000, and Iran's reckoning ranges upward of 300,000. Then there are the casualties in the wake of Iraq's 1990 occupation of Kuwait. Iraq's official toll from American bombing in that war is 100,000—surely a gross exaggeration—but nobody contests that thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed in the American campaign to oust Mr. Hussein's forces from Kuwait. In addition, 1,000 Kuwaitis died during the fighting and occupation in their country. Casualties from Iraq's gulag are harder to estimate. Accounts collected by Western human rights groups from Iraqi émigrés and defectors have suggested that the number of those who have 'disappeared' into the hands of the secret police, never to be heard from again, could be 200,000.}}</ref><ref name="250k" />

On 16 March 1988, the Kurdish town of [[Halabja]] was [[Halabja massacre|attacked]] with a mix of [[mustard gas]] and [[nerve agent]]s, killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people, and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more, mostly civilians.<ref name="Halabja">[https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/18714.htm Saddam's Chemical Weapons Campaign: Halabja, 16 March 1988]&nbsp;– Bureau of Public Affairs</ref><ref name="die">{{cite news |title=BBC ON THIS DAY &#124; 16 &#124; 1988: Thousands die in Halabja gas attack |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210230111/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm |archive-date=10 February 2018 |access-date=28 August 2013 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Halabja, the massacre the West tried to ignore |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6991512.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://swap.stanford.edu/20100128200211/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6991512.ece |archive-date=28 January 2010 |access-date=28 August 2013 |work=The Times}}</ref> The attack occurred in conjunction with the Anfal campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish [[peshmerga]] rebel forces. Following the incident, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] took the official position that [[Halabja massacre#Allegations of Iranian involvement|Iran was partly to blame]] for the Halabja massacre.<ref name="mind">{{cite web |last=Hiltermann |first=Joost R. |date=17 January 2003 |title=Halabja – America didn't seem to mind poison gas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724051247/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.html |archive-date=24 July 2012 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> A study by the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] held Iran responsible for the attack,<ref name=":3">{{cite web |title=FMFRP 3-203 – Lessons Learned: Iran-Iraq War |url=http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504002439/http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/ |archive-date=4 May 2012 |access-date=28 August 2013 |publisher=Fas.org}}</ref> an assessment that was subsequently used by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] for much of the early 1990s.<ref name=":3" /> Despite this, few observers today doubt that it was Iraq that executed the Halabja massacre.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hiltermann |first=Joost R. |author-link=Joost Hiltermann |title=A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-87686-5 |page=183 |quote=Today, few observers question the assertion that it was Iraq that gassed Halabja.}}</ref> According to [[Joost Hiltermann]]: "Analysis of thousands of captured Iraqi secret police documents and declassified U.S. government documents, as well as interviews with scores of Kurdish survivors, senior Iraqi defectors and retired U.S. intelligence officers, show (1) that Iraq carried out the attack on Halabja, and (2) that the United States, fully aware it was Iraq, accused Iran, Iraq's enemy in a fierce war, of being partly responsible for the attack."<ref name="mind"/>
==== International support and opposition ====
{{Main|International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War|United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War}}
[[File:Cardoen Saddam.jpg|thumb|Saddam greeting [[Carlos Cardoen]] — a Chilean businessman who provided Iraq with weapons]]Backed by the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], several European nations, and heavily financed by the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf]], Saddam positioned himself as "the defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary, fundamentalist and [[Shia Islamism|Shia Islamist]] Iran.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-06-12 |title=The Lion of Babylon Roars - a Ba'athist Iraq wank |url=https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-lion-of-babylon-roars-a-baathist-iraq-wank.282523/ |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=alternatehistory.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The only exception was the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>This section: Mesbahi pp.74–78</ref><ref name="ivapn">{{cite journal |date=1 January 1968 |title=Iraq and U.S.S.R.: Oil Agreement |journal=International Legal Materials |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=307–311 |doi=10.1017/s0020782900052517 |jstor=20690330 |s2cid=249004473}}</ref> It initially refused to supply Iraq on the basis of neutrality in the conflict.<ref>Sajjadpour pp.32</ref> In his memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that Brezhnev initially refused to aid Saddam due to anger over the regime's treatment of Iraqi communists.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> However, by 1982, the [[Soviet Union]] began [[Soviet Union during the Iran-Iraq War|supplying Iraq with military aid]], and in the final years (1986–1988), it actively supported Iraq.<ref>Sajjadpour p.35</ref>

In a U.S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the [[State Sponsors of Terrorism (U.S. list)|U.S list of State Sponsors of Terrorism]] in February 1982.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/13/world/confrontation-gulf-us-aid-helped-hussein-s-climb-now-critics-say-bill-due.html Confrontation in the Gulf; U.S. Aid Helped Hussein's Climb; Now, Critics Say, the Bill Is Due] ''The New York Times'', 13 August 1990.</ref> Ostensibly, this was because of improvement in the regime's record, although former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, "No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in [[State terrorism|terrorism]] ... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran."<ref name="Borer">{{cite web |url=http://www.army.mil/professionalWriting/volumes/volume1/july_2003/7_03_2v2.html |title=Inverse Engagement: Lessons from U.S.-Iraq Relations, 1982–1990 |access-date=12 October 2006 |last=Borer |first=Douglas A. |year=2003 |work=U.S. Army Professional Writing Collection |publisher=U.S. Army |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011195656/http://www.army.mil/professionalwriting/volumes/volume1/july_2003/7_03_2v2.html |archive-date=11 October 2006}}</ref> Middle East special envoy [[Donald Rumsfeld]] met Saddam on 19–20 December 1983 at Baghdad.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Borger |first=Julian |date=2002-12-31 |title=Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/31/iraq.politics |access-date=2025-04-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=When Rumsfeld was chummy with Saddam.. |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/9/4/when-rumsfeld-was-chummy-with-saddam |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=ABC News |title=Saddam Hussein's Gift to Donald Rumsfeld: Video of Syrian 'Atrocities' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-rumsfeld-video-saddam-hussein-depicts-barbaric-syrian/story?id=13087737 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> After which, Saddam sent his deputy Aziz to visit the United States in 1984.<ref name=":37">{{Cite web |last=Al-Marashi |first=Ibrahim |title=A divisive legacy: Tariq Aziz (1936-2015) |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/6/a-divisive-legacy-tariq-aziz-1936-2015 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> He met with President [[Ronald Reagan]] and then vice-president [[George H. W. Bush]] at the [[White House]] and secured further [[United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War|U.S support for Iraq]].<ref name=":37" />

The Soviet Union, [[France]], and [[China]] together accounted for over 90% of the value of Iraq's arms imports between 1980 and 1988.<ref>[http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/values.php SIPRI Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125105813/http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/values.php |date=25 November 2015 }} Indicates that of $29,079 million of arms exported to Iraq from 1980 to 1988 the Soviet Union accounted for $16,808 million, France $4,591 million, and China $5,004 million (Info must be entered)</ref> While the U.S supplied Iraq with arms, dual-use technology and economic aid, it was also involved in a covert and controversial illegal arms deal, providing sanctioned Iran with weaponry.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> This political scandal became known as the [[Iran–Contra affair]].<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/ ''The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On'']. The National Security Archive (George Washington University), 24 November 2006</ref> Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the [[Islamic Republic of Iran Navy|Iranian navy]] in the [[Persian Gulf]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> 

Chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by [[West Germany|West German]] companies as well as using dual-use technology imported following the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]]'s lifting of export restrictions.<ref name="Isa">Dr. Khalil Ibrahim Al Isa, [https://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/az120103.html Iraqi Scientist Reports on German, Other Help for Iraq Chemical Weapons Program], ''Al Zaman (London)'', 1 December 2003.</ref> The [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] also supplied Iraq with "satellite photos showing Iranian deployments."<ref>{{cite news |author1=Dickey, Christopher |author2=Thomas, Evan |date=22 September 2002 |title=How Saddam Happened |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2002/09/22/how-saddam-happened.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213041515/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2002/09/22/how-saddam-happened.html |archive-date=13 December 2011 |access-date=20 August 2011 |newspaper=Newsweek}}</ref> This satellite imagery may have played a crucial role in blocking the [[Operation Ramadan|Iranian invasion of Iraq]] in 1982.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blight |first1=James G. |title=Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4422-0830-8 |pages=21, 97, 113–119 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> However, Saddam's government later blamed the Iraqi defeat in the [[First Battle of al-Faw]] in February 1986 on "misinformation from the U.S."<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 January 1987 |title=IRAQ ASCRIBES A KEY DEFEAT IN '86 TO MISINFORMATION FROM THE U.S. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/19/world/iraq-ascribes-a-key-defeat-in-86-to-misinformation-from-the-us.html |access-date=17 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>