Editing Iran–Iraq War (section)

==Aftermath==
===Casualties===
The Iran–Iraq War was the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.<ref name="Fürtig" /> [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] states: "Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses."<ref name="Britannica Iran–Iraq War"/> Iraqi casualties are estimated at 105,000–200,000 killed,<ref name="hiro205" /><ref name="PotterSick2006" /><ref name="Karsh2002" /><ref name="KochLong1997" /> while about 400,000 had been wounded and some 70,000 taken prisoner.<ref name="Mikaberidze2011" /><ref name="Karsh2002" /> Thousands of civilians on both sides died in air raids and ballistic missile attacks.<ref name="AggrPolitics" /> Prisoners taken by both countries began to be released on 17 August 1990, though some were not released until more than 10 years after the end of the conflict.<ref name="molavi05" /> Cities on both sides had also been considerably damaged. While revolutionary Iran had been bloodied, Iraq was left with a large military and was a [[regional power]], albeit with severe debt, financial problems, and labour shortages.<ref name="Dunn 1998" />

According to Iranian government sources, the war cost Iran an estimated 200,000–220,000 killed,<ref name="hiro205" /><ref name="Abrahamian2008" /><ref name="Mikaberidze2011" /><ref name="PotterSick2006" /> or up to 262,000 according to the conservative Western estimates.<ref name="hiro205" /><ref name="Rajaee1997" /> This includes 123,220 combatants,<ref name="hiro205" /><ref name="Abrahamian2008" /> 60,711 [[Missing in action|MIA]]<ref name="hiro205" /> and 11,000–16,000 [[Civilian casualties|civilians]].<ref name="hiro205" /><ref name="Abrahamian2008" /> Combatants include 79,664 members of the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps|Revolutionary Guard Corps]] and additional 35,170 soldiers from [[Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran|regular military]].<ref name="Abrahamian2008" /> In addition, [[prisoners of war]] accounted for 42,875 Iranian casualties, captured and kept in Iraqi detention centres from 2.5 to more than 15 years after the war was over.<ref name="Zargar2012" />

According to the Janbazan Affairs Organization, 398,587 Iranians sustained injuries that required prolonged medical and health care following primary treatment, including 52,195 (13%) injured due to the exposure to [[chemical warfare]] agents. From 1980 to 2012, 218,867 Iranians died due to war injuries and the mean age of combatants was 23 years old. This includes 33,430 civilians (15% of all fatalities), mostly women and children. More than 144,000 Iranian children were orphaned as a consequence of these deaths.<ref name="Zargar2012" /> On average, 70 people were killed in Iran daily, whereas in addition 1,400 people died from landmines between 1988 and 2003.<ref>{{cite journal| journal=Archives of Iranian Medicine Journal |year=2013 |volume=16 |issue=9 |page=542-550 |title=Mortality and injuries among Iranians in Iraq-Iran war: a systematic review |first1=Payman |last1=Salamati |first2=Seyed Mansour |last2=Razavi |first3=Farhad |last3=Shokraneh |first4=Saman Mohazzab |last4=Torabi| PMID=23981159 |s2cid=35488378 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256188005_Mortality_and_Injuries_among_Iranians_in_Iraq-Iran_War_A_Systematic_Review}}</ref> Other estimates put Iranian casualties up to 600,000.<ref name="Dunnigan 1991" /><ref name="Twentieth Century World History 1997" /><ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="Chirot, Daniel 1994" /><ref>Hammond Atlas of the 20th Century (1996), pp. 134–135</ref><ref>War Annual: The World in Conflict [year] War Annual [number].</ref><ref>"B&J": Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, ''International Conflict: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Conflicts and Their Management 1945–1995'' (1997), p. 195</ref>

Both Iraq and Iran manipulated loss figures to suit their purposes. At the same time, Western analysts accepted improbable estimates.<ref name="PelletiereJohnson1990">{{cite book|last1=Pelletiere|first1=Stephen C.|last2=Johnson|first2=Douglas V.|title=Lessons Learned: Iran–Iraq War|series=Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication|issue=3–203|publisher=[[U.S. Marine Corps]]|location=Washington, D.C.|date=10 December 1990|pages=117–119|url=https://fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/appf.pdf|oclc=37998429|access-date=2 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103065353/http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/appf.pdf|archive-date=3 November 2013}}</ref> By April 1988, such casualties were estimated at between 150,000 and 340,000 Iraqis dead, and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians.<ref name="PelletiereJohnson1990" /> Shortly after the end of the war, it was thought that Iran suffered even more than a million dead.<ref name="Abrahamian2008" /> Considering the style of fighting on the ground and the fact that neither side penetrated deeply into the other's territory, [[United States Marine Corps|USMC]] analysts believed events do not substantiate the high casualties claimed.<ref name="PelletiereJohnson1990" /> The [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraqi government]] has claimed 800,000 Iranians were killed in action, four times more than Iranian official figures,<ref name="hiro205" /> whereas Iraqi intelligence privately put the number at 228,000–258,000 in August 1986.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=1987–1988: An end in sight?|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1107062290|pages=300–301 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref> Iraqi losses were also revised downwards over time.<ref name="KochLong1997" />

===Peace talks and postwar situation===

[[File:Iran 2007 229 Golestan War Heros (1732762968).jpg|thumb|right|Iranian Martyr Cemetery in [[Isfahan]]]]

With the [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 598|ceasefire]] in place, and UN peacekeepers monitoring the border, Iran and Iraq sent their representatives to [[Geneva]], Switzerland, to negotiate a peace agreement on the terms of the ceasefire. However, peace talks stalled. Iraq, in violation of the UN ceasefire, refused to withdraw its troops from {{convert|3000|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} of disputed marches unless the Iranians accepted Iraq's full sovereignty over the [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway. Foreign powers continued to support Iraq, which wanted to gain at the negotiating table what they failed to achieve on the battlefield, and Iran was portrayed as the one not wanting peace.<ref name=Tarock />

In response, Iran refused to release 70,000 Iraqi prisoners of war, compared to 40,000 Iranian prisoners of war held by Iraq. They continued to carry out a naval blockade of Iraq, although its effects were mitigated by Iraqi use of ports in friendly neighbouring Arab countries. Iran began to improve relations with many of the states that opposed it during the war. Because of Iranian actions, by 1990, Saddam had become more conciliatory, and in a letter to the future fourth President of Iran Rafsanjani, he became more open to the idea of a peace agreement, although he still insisted on full sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab.<ref name=Tarock>{{cite book|last=Tarock|first=Adam|title=The Superpower's Involvement in the Iran Iraq War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJVggCw553QC&q=Iran+Iraq+peace+agreement&pg=PA192|isbn=978-1560725930|year=1998|publisher=Nova Publishers|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118165557/https://books.google.com/books?id=tJVggCw553QC&q=Iran+Iraq+peace+agreement&pg=PA192|url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1990, Iran was undergoing military rearmament and reorganisation, and purchased $10&nbsp;billion worth of heavy weaponry from the USSR and China, including aircraft, tanks, and missiles. Rafsanjani reversed Iran's self-imposed ban on chemical weapons, and ordered their manufacture and stockpile (Iran destroyed them in 1993 after ratifying the [[Chemical Weapons Convention]]).{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} As [[Persian Gulf War|war with the western powers]] loomed, Iraq became concerned about the possibility of Iran mending its relations with the west in order to attack Iraq. Iraq had lost its support from the West, and its position in Iran was increasingly untenable.<ref name=Tarock /> Saddam realised that if Iran attempted to expel the Iraqis from the disputed territories in the border area, it was likely they would succeed.<ref name="Farrokh 03" />

Shortly after his invasion of Kuwait, Saddam wrote a letter to Rafsanjani stating that Iraq recognised Iranian rights over the eastern half of the Shatt al-Arab, a reversion to ''status quo ante bellum'' that he had repudiated a decade earlier,<ref name="Onwar 2000">{{cite web|title=Iran–Iraq war 1980–1990|url=http://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr80/firaniraq1980.htm|access-date=10 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410195834/https://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr80/firaniraq1980.htm|archive-date=10 April 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> and that he would accept Iran's demands and withdraw Iraq's military from the disputed territories. A peace agreement was signed finalising the terms of the UN resolution, [[diplomatic relations]] were restored, and by late 1990-early 1991, the Iraqi military withdrew. The UN peacekeepers withdrew from the border shortly afterward. Most of the prisoners of war were released in 1990, although some remained as late as 2003.<ref name=Tarock /> Iranian politicians declared it to be the "greatest victory in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran".<ref name=Tarock />

Most historians and analysts consider the war to be a stalemate.<ref name="Karsh2002" /><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Segal|first=David|date=28 January 2009|title=The Iran–Iraq War: A Military Analysis|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/1988-06-01/iran-iraq-war-military-analysis|volume=66|issue=Summer 1988|work=Foreign Affairs|access-date=16 March 2019|archive-date=28 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128193219/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iran/1988-06-01/iran-iraq-war-military-analysis|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="molavi05" /> Certain analysts believe that Iraq won, on the basis of the successes of their 1988 offensives which thwarted Iran's major territorial ambitions in Iraq and persuaded Iran to accept the ceasefire.<ref name="Farrokh 03" /> Iranian analysts believe that they won the war because although they did not succeed in overthrowing the Iraqi government, they thwarted Iraq's major territorial ambitions in Iran, and that, two years after the war had ended, Iraq permanently gave up its claim of ownership over the entire Shatt al-Arab as well.<ref name="Farrokh 03" />

On 9 December 1991, [[Javier Pérez de Cuéllar]], [[U.N. Secretary General|UN Secretary General]] at the time, reported that Iraq's initiation of the war was unjustified, as was its occupation of Iranian territory and use of chemical weapons against civilians:

<blockquote>That [Iraq's] explanations do not appear sufficient or acceptable to the international community is a fact...[the attack] cannot be justified under the charter of the United Nations, any recognized rules and principles of international law, or any principles of international morality, and entails the responsibility for conflict. Even if before the outbreak of the conflict there had been some encroachment by Iran on Iraqi territory, such encroachment did not justify Iraq's aggression against Iran—which was followed by Iraq's continuous occupation of Iranian territory during the conflict—in violation of the prohibition of the use of force, which is regarded as one of the rules of jus cogens...On one occasion I had to note with deep regret the experts' conclusion that "chemical weapons ha[d] been used against Iranian civilians in an area adjacent to an urban center lacking any protection against that kind of attack."<ref>{{cite report|publisher=U.N. Secretary General's|date=9 December 1991|url=http://www.iranian.com/Kasraie/2005/April/Ahwaz/Images/page2.pdf|title=Further Report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 598|quote=That [Iraq's] explanations do not appear sufficient or acceptable to the international community is a fact. Accordingly, the outstanding event under the violations referred to is the attack of 22 September 1980, against Iran, which cannot be justified under the charter of the United Nations, any recognized rules and principles of international law or any principles of international morality and entails the responsibility for conflict.<br />Even if before the outbreak of the conflict there had been some encroachment by Iran on Iraqi territory, such encroachment did not justify Iraq's aggression against Iran—which was followed by Iraq's continuous occupation of Iranian territory during the conflict—in violation of the prohibition of the use of force, which is regarded as one of the rules of jus cogens.<br />...On one occasion I had to note with deep regret the experts' conclusion that "chemical weapons ha[d] been used against Iranian civilians in an area adjacent to an urban center lacking any protection against that kind of attack" (s/20134, annex). The Council expressed its dismay on the matter and its condemnation in [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 620|Resolution 620]] (1988), adopted on 26 August 1988.|access-date=23 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130153306/http://www.iranian.com/Kasraie/2005/April/Ahwaz/Images/page2.pdf|archive-date=30 January 2012|url-status=live}} S/23273, items 6, 7, and 8</ref></blockquote>

He also stated that had the UN accepted this fact earlier, the war would have almost certainly not lasted as long as it did. Iran, encouraged by the announcement, sought reparations from Iraq, but never received any.<ref name=Tarock />

[[File:Iranian Martyrs Museum 08.JPG|thumb|The Iranian Martyrs Museum in Tehran]]

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Iran and Iraq relations remained balanced between a [[Cold war (general term)|cold war]] and a [[cold peace]]. Despite renewed and somewhat thawed relations, both sides continued to have low level conflicts. Iraq continued to host and support the [[People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran|Mujahedeen-e-Khalq]], which repeatedly attacked Iran until the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], including the [[assassination]] of Iranian general [[Ali Sayyad Shirazi]] in 1999, cross border raids, and mortar attacks. Iran carried out several [[airstrike]]s and missile attacks against Mujahedeen targets inside of Iraq, the largest taking place in 2001, when Iran fired 56 Scud missiles at Mujahedeen targets.<ref name="New York Times Scuds 2001">{{cite web|title=Iraq accuses Iran of Scud missile attack|website=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-19-mn-52980-story.html|date=19 April 2001|access-date=21 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111161808/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/19/news/mn-52980|archive-date=11 January 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to General Hamdani, Iran continued to carry out low-level infiltrations of Iraqi territory, using Iraqi dissidents and anti-government activists rather than Iranian troops, in order to incite revolts. After the fall of Saddam in 2003, Hamdani claimed that Iranian agents infiltrated and created numerous militias in Iraq and built an intelligence system operating within the country.<ref name="Woods 2010" />

In 2005, the new government of Iraq apologised to Iran for starting the war.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/23/iran-iraq-war-anniversary|location=London|work=The Guardian|first=Ian|last=Black|title=Iran and Iraq remember war that cost more than a million lives|date=23 September 2010|access-date=14 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102173349/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/23/iran-iraq-war-anniversary|archive-date=2 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The Iraqi government also commemorated the war with various monuments, including the [[Hands of Victory]] and the [[al-Shaheed Monument]], both in Baghdad. The war also helped to create a forerunner for the [[Coalition of the Gulf War]], when the [[Gulf Arab]] states banded together early in the war to form the [[Gulf Cooperation Council]] to help Iraq fight Iran.<ref name="Dunn 1998" />

===Economic situation===
The economic loss at the time was believed to exceed $500&nbsp;billion for each country ($1.2&nbsp;trillion total).<ref name="Riedel"/><ref name="encarta88">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580640_2/Iran-Iraq_War.html|title=Iran–Iraq War|encyclopedia=Encarta|publisher=MSN|date=20 August 1988|access-date=1 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406234844/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580640_2/Iran-Iraq_War.html|archive-date=6 April 2009}}</ref> In addition, economic development stalled and oil exports were disrupted. Iraq had accrued more than $130&nbsp;billion of international debt, excluding interest, and was also weighed down by a slowed [[GDP growth]]. Iraq's debt to the [[Paris Club]] amounted to $21&nbsp;billion, 85% of which had originated from the combined inputs of Japan, the USSR, France, Germany, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom. The largest portion of Iraq's debt, amounting to $130&nbsp;billion, was to its former Arab backers, with $67&nbsp;billion loaned by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, [[UAE]], and Jordan.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

After the war, Iraq accused Kuwait of [[slant drilling]] and stealing oil, inciting its [[invasion of Kuwait]], which in turn worsened Iraq's financial situation: the [[United Nations Compensation Commission]] mandated Iraq to pay reparations of more than $200&nbsp;billion to victims of the invasion, including Kuwait and the United States. To enforce payment, Iraq was put under a [[Sanctions against Iraq|comprehensive international embargo]], which further strained the Iraqi economy and pushed its [[external debt]] to private and public sectors to more than $500&nbsp;billion by the end of Saddam's rule. Combined with Iraq's negative economic growth after prolonged international sanctions, this produced a [[debt-to-GDP ratio]] of more than 1,000%, making Iraq the most indebted developing country in the world. The unsustainable economic situation compelled the new Iraqi government to request that a considerable portion of debt incurred during the Iran–Iraq war be written off.<ref name="weiss11">{{cite report|last=Weiss|first=Martin A.|publisher=Congressional Research Service|title=Iraq's Debt Relief: Procedure and Potential Implications for International Debt Relief|date=29 March 2011|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33376.pdf|via=Federation of American Scientists|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924132518/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33376.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="truman03">{{cite news|author=Truman, Edwin M.|url=http://www.iie.com/publications/opeds/oped.cfm?ResearchID=249|title=Op-ed: The Right Way to Ease Iraq's Debt Burden|newspaper=Financial Times|location=London|date=28 April 2003|access-date=2 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713005331/http://www.iie.com/publications/opeds/oped.cfm?ResearchID=249|archive-date=13 July 2011|url-status=dead}} Re-published by Peterson Institute for International Economics</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7492115.stm|publisher=BBC News|title=UAE waives billions of Iraqi debt|date=6 July 2008|access-date=12 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080722083028/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7492115.stm|archive-date=22 July 2008|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5736M320090804|agency=Reuters|title=Iraq war reparations to Kuwait could be reduced: UK|date=4 August 2009|access-date=1 July 2017|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126200140/https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5736M320090804|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Science and technology===
The war had its impact on medical science: a surgical intervention for comatose patients with penetrating [[traumatic brain injury|brain injuries]] was [[science and technology in Iran#Medical sciences|created by Iranian physicians]] treating wounded soldiers, later establishing [[neurosurgery]] guidelines to treat civilians who had suffered blunt or penetrating skull injuries.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2011-jan-24-la-he-medical-advances-20110124-story.html|title=Advances in treatment help more people survive severe injuries to the brain|last=Healy|first=Melissa|date=2011-01-24|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013082653/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/24/health/la-he-medical-advances-20110124|archive-date=13 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Iranian physicians' experience in the war informed the medical care of U.S. congresswoman [[Gabby Giffords]] after the [[2011 Tucson shooting]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Amirjamshidi|first1=Abbass|title=Minimal debridement or simple wound closure as the only surgical treatment in war victims with low-velocity penetrating head injuries: indications and management protocol based upon more than 8 years follow-up of 99 cases from Iran–Iraq conflict|journal=Surgical Neurology|date=2003|volume=60|issue=2|pages=105–110; discussion 110–111|doi=10.1016/S0090-3019(03)00358-6|pmid=12900110}}</ref>

In addition to helping trigger the Persian Gulf War, the Iran–Iraq War also contributed to Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf War. Iraq's military was accustomed to fighting the slow moving Iranian infantry formations with artillery and static defences, while using mostly unsophisticated tanks to gun down and shell the infantry and overwhelm the smaller Iranian tank force; in addition to being dependent on [[weapons of mass destruction]] to help secure victories. Therefore, they were rapidly overwhelmed by the high-tech, quick-manoeuvring [[Coalition of the Gulf War|Coalition forces]] using modern doctrines such as [[AirLand Battle]].<ref name="Dunn 1998" />