Editing Iran–Iraq War (section)

===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" />