Editing Iran–Iraq War (section)

==Iraq's use of chemical weapons==
{{Main|Iraqi chemical attacks against Iran}}
{{See also|Halabja chemical attack|Iraqi chemical weapons programme|Second Battle of al-Faw}}
{|  style="text-align:center; float:right; font-size:85%; margin-left:2em;"  class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Usage of chemical weapons by Iraq against Iran<ref>{{Citation|first1=Hamid Reza|last1=Qasemi|title=Eradicating Terrorism from the Middle East|series=Policy and Administrative Approaches|chapter=Chapter 12: Iran and Its Policy Against Terrorism|volume=17|editor=Alexander R. Dawoody|isbn=978-3-319-31018-3|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-31018-3|year=2016|publisher=Springer International Publishing Switzerland|page=210}}</ref>
! rowspan=2|Year
! rowspan=2|Number of usage
! colspan=4|Chemical agent used
! colspan=2|Casualties*
|-
! {{small|[[Sulfur mustard|Mustard]]}}
! {{small|[[Nerve agent|Nerve]]}}
! {{small|[[Blood agent|Blood]]}}
! {{small|[[Pulmonary agent|Choking]]}}
! Killed
! Injured
|-
|1980||4||rowspan=9|Yes||rowspan=4 colspan=3 {{n/a}}||20||1
|-
|1981||6||101||{{unknown}}
|-
|1982||12||rowspan=2 colspan=2 {{unknown}}
|-
|1983||64
|-
|1984||{{unknown}}||rowspan=5|Yes||rowspan=5|Yes||rowspan=5|Yes||40||2,225
|-
|1985||76||77||11,644
|-
|1986||102||102||4,720
|-
|1987||43||442||9,440
|-
|1988||34||colspan=2 {{unknown}}
|-
| colspan=8 | <small>* The actual casualties may be much higher, as the [[latency period]] is as long as 40 years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://world.time.com/2014/01/20/iran-still-haunted-and-influenced-by-chemical-weapons-attacks/|title=Iran Still Haunted and Influenced By Chemical Weapons Attacks|last=Wright|first=Robin|date=20 January 2014|magazine=Time|access-date=2017-09-30|issn=0040-781X|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613203450/http://world.time.com/2014/01/20/iran-still-haunted-and-influenced-by-chemical-weapons-attacks/|archive-date=13 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref></small>
|}
In a declassified 1991 report, the CIA estimated that Iran had suffered more than 50,000 casualties from Iraq's use of several chemical weapons,<ref name=wright08>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Robin|title=Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East|url=https://archive.org/details/dreamsshadowsfut00wrig|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=Penguin Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-59420-111-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/dreamsshadowsfut00wrig/page/438 438]}}</ref> though current estimates are more than 100,000 as the long-term effects continue to cause casualties.<ref name=AggrPolitics /><ref name=bryant07>{{cite book|last=Bryant|first=Terry|title=History's Greatest War|year=2007|publisher=Global Media|location=Chandni Chowk, Delhi|isbn=978-8189940638|edition=1st}}</ref> The official CIA estimate did not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for [[Disabled Iranian veterans|Veterans of Iran]]. According to a 2002 article in the ''[[Star-Ledger]]'', 20,000 Iranian soldiers were killed on the spot by nerve gas. As of 2002, 5,000 of the 80,000 survivors continue to seek regular medical treatment, while 1,000 are hospital inpatients.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?/specialprojects/mideaststories/me1209.html|journal=New Jersey Star-Ledger|title=In Iran, grim reminders of Saddam's arsenal|date=27 October 2002|last=Fassihi|first=Farnaz|access-date=10 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213061050/http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/index.ssf?%2Fspecialprojects%2Fmideaststories%2Fme1209.html|archive-date=13 December 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="r1">Center for Documents of The Imposed War, Tehran. (مرکز مطالعات و تحقیقات جنگ){{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref>

According to Iraqi documents, assistance in developing chemical weapons was obtained from firms in many countries, including the United States, West Germany, the [[Netherlands]], the United Kingdom, and France. A report stated that Dutch, Australian, Italian, French and both West and East German companies were involved in the export of raw materials to Iraqi chemical weapons factories.<ref>{{cite web|title=Iraqi Scientist Reports on German, Other Help for Iraq Chemical Weapons Program|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/az120103.html|publisher=[[Federation of American Scientists]]|access-date=10 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513085855/https://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/az120103.html|archive-date=13 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Declassified CIA documents show that the United States was providing reconnaissance intelligence to Iraq around 1987–88 which was then used to launch chemical weapon attacks on Iranian troops and that the CIA fully knew that chemical weapons would be deployed and [[sarin]] and [[cyclosarin]] attacks followed.<ref name=foreignpolicy.com_2013aug26>{{cite web|first1=Shane|last1=Harris|first2=Matthew M.|last2=Aid|title=Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran|date=26 August 2013|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran|publisher=[[ForeignPolicy.com]]|access-date=27 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826210438/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran|archive-date=26 August 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 21 March 1986, the United Nations Security Council made a declaration stating that "members are profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops, and the members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons." The United States was the only member who voted against the issuance of this statement.<ref>{{cite report |url = http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/{65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9}/Disarm%20S17911.pdf |author=United Nations Security Council |publisher=Security Council Report |date=12 March 1986|title=Report of the mission dispatched by the Secretary-General to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq S/17911}} S/17911 and Add. 1. Cited in {{cite web|url=http://www.casi.org.uk/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html#fiftyone|title=U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 – 2 August 1990|last=Hurd|first=Nathaniel}}</ref>{{NoteTag|This was a "decision" rather than a resolution.}} A mission to the region in 1988 found evidence of the use of chemical weapons, and was condemned in [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 612|Security Council Resolution 612]].

[[File:Sardashtchemic.jpg|thumb|Victims of the 1987 chemical attack on [[Sardasht, West Azerbaijan]], Iran]]

According to [[W. Patrick Lang]], a senior defence intelligence officer at the U.S. [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern" to Reagan and his aides, because they "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose". He claimed that the Defense Intelligence Agency "would have never accepted the use of chemical weapons against civilians, but the use against military objectives was seen as inevitable in the Iraqi struggle for survival".<ref name="Tyler New York Times" /> The Reagan administration did not stop aiding Iraq after receiving reports of the use of poison gas on Kurdish civilians.<ref name="Galbraith">{{cite report|first1=Peter W.|last1=Galbraith|first2=Christopher Jr.|last2=Van Hollen|title=Chemical Weapons Use in Kurdistan: Iraq's Final Offensive|series=Report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|date=21 September 1988|page=30|url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/47fdfb1b0.html|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|access-date=3 November 2012|archive-date=18 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218033316/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/47fdfb1b0.html|url-status=live}}{{clarify|reason=url points someplace other than to the Galbraith / Van Holland report|date=January 2020}}</ref><ref name="NYT1988-09-15">{{cite news|first=Robert|last=Pear|title=U.S. Says It Monitored Iraqi Messages on Gas|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 September 1988|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/15/world/us-says-it-monitored-iraqi-messages-on-gas.html|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130025429/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/15/world/us-says-it-monitored-iraqi-messages-on-gas.html|archive-date=30 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The United States accused Iran of using chemical weapons as well,<ref name=fisk05 />{{rp|214|date=November 2012}} though the allegations have been disputed. [[Joost Hiltermann]], the principal researcher for [[Human Rights Watch]] between 1992 and 1994, conducted a two-year study that included a field investigation in Iraq, and obtained Iraqi government documents in the process. According to Hiltermann, the literature on the Iran–Iraq War reflects allegations of chemical weapons used by Iran, but they are "marred by a lack of specificity as to time and place, and the failure to provide any sort of evidence".<ref name="potter04">{{cite book|last1=Potter|first1=Lawrence|last2=Sick|first2=Gary|title=Iran, Iraq, and the legacies of war|year=2004|publisher=MacMillan|isbn=1-4039-6450-5}}</ref>{{rp|153|date=November 2012}}

Analysts [[Gary Sick]] and Lawrence Potter have called the allegations against Iran "mere assertions" and stated, "No persuasive evidence of the claim that Iran was the primary culprit [of using chemical weapons] was ever presented."<ref name="potter04" />{{rp|156|date=November 2012}} Policy consultant and author Joseph Tragert stated, "Iran did not retaliate with chemical weapons, probably because it did not possess any at the time".<ref name="Tragert">{{cite book|last=Tragert|first=Joseph|title=Understanding Iran|year=2003|isbn=1-59257-141-7|page=190|publisher=Alphan|location=Indianapolis, Indiana}}</ref> Documents uncovered after the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] show that Iraqi military intelligence was not aware of any large-scale chemical attacks by Iranian forces, although a March 1987 document describes five small-scale chemical attacks perpetrated by the Iranians (four involving mustard gas and one involving [[phosgene]], with the likely source being captured Iraqi munitions), and there are also reports of Iranian use of tear gas and [[White phosphorus munitions|white phosphorus]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=Introduction|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=9781107062290|page=2}}</ref>

At his trial in December 2006, Saddam said he would take responsibility "with honour" for any attacks on Iran using conventional or chemical weapons during the war, but that he took issue with the charges that he ordered attacks on Iraqis.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20950607-1702,00.html|title=Saddam admits Iran gas attacks|newspaper=The Australian|first=Ahmed|last=Rasheed|date=19 December 2006|access-date=18 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070527021050/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20950607-1702,00.html|archive-date=27 May 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> A medical analysis of the effects of Iraqi mustard gas is described in a U.S. military textbook and contrasted effects of World War I gas.<ref name="MMCC07">{{cite book|title=Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare|publisher=Office of The Surgeon General, Department of the Army, United States of America|chapter-url=http://www.sc-ems.com/ems/NuclearBiologicalChemical/MedicalAspectsofNBC/chapters/chapter_7.htm|chapter=Chapter 7: Vesicants|first1=Frederick R.|last1=Sidell|first2=John S.|last2=Urbanetti|first3=William J.|last3=Smith|first4=Charles G.|last4=Hurst|access-date=17 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060112201608/http://sc-ems.com/ems/NuclearBiologicalChemical/MedicalAspectsofNBC/chapters/chapter_7.htm|archive-date=12 January 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the time of the conflict, the [[United Nations Security Council]] issued statements that "chemical weapons had been used in the war". UN statements never clarified that only Iraq was using chemical weapons, and according to retrospective authors "the international community remained silent as Iraq used weapons of mass destruction against Iranian[s] as well as Iraqi Kurds."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iraq-vii-iran-iraq-war|title=Iraq vii. Iran–Iraq War|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica|date=15 December 2006|access-date=8 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913183529/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iraq-vii-iran-iraq-war|archive-date=13 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/169/36403.html|title=America Didn't Seem to Mind Poison Gas|first=Joost|last=Hiltermann|work=Global Policy Forum|date=17 January 2003|access-date=18 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310223249/https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/169/36403.html|archive-date=10 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=iranchamber-armingiraq>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php|title=Arming Iraq and the Path to War|first=John|last=King|publisher=U.N. Observer & International Report|date=31 March 2003|access-date=6 January 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918203103/http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php|archive-date=18 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> A 1987 UN report conducted at the behest of both belligerents discovered weapon fragments that established Iraqi responsibility for chemical attacks on Iranian soldiers and civilians, but could not substantiate Iraq's allegations of Iranian chemical weapons use: "Iraqi forces have been affected by mustard gas and a pulmonary element, possibly phosgene. In the absence of conclusive evidence of the weapons used, it could not be determined how the injuries were caused."<ref name="Hiltermann 2007 165–166, 170–172">{{cite book|author-link=Joost Hiltermann|last=Hiltermann|first=Joost R.|title=A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2007|isbn=9780521876865|pages=165–166, 170–172}}</ref>

Evidence suggests that these Iraqi chemical casualties were likely the result of "blowback", whereas the evidence that Iraq submitted to the UN—such as two Iranian 130&nbsp;mm shells that UN specialists found had "no internal chemical-resistant coating" and were "normally used for filling with high explosives"—did not withstand scrutiny; UN official [[Iqbal Riza]] later acknowledged that Iraq's evidence was "clearly fabricated". However, the report's phrasing—"chemical weapons were again used against Iranian forces by Iraqi forces&nbsp;... now also Iraqi forces have sustained injuries from chemical warfare"—contributed to an erroneous perception that Iran and Iraq were equally at fault.<ref name="Hiltermann 2007 165–166, 170–172"/>

In response to further Iraqi chemical attacks on Kurdish civilians after the August 1988 ceasefire with Iran, United States senators [[Claiborne Pell]] and [[Jesse Helms]] called for comprehensive [[Economic sanctions|economic]] [[International sanctions|sanctions]] against Iraq, including an oil embargo and severe limitations on the export of dual-use technology. Although the ensuing legislation passed in the U.S. Senate, it faced strong opposition within the House of Representatives and did not become law. In a rare rebuke, Secretary of State [[George Shultz]] condemned Iraq's "unjustified and abhorrent" chemical attacks, which Shultz's assistant [[Charles E. Redman]] characterised as "unacceptable to the civilized world". Even after these pronouncements, however, the State Department advised against sanctions.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Elaine Sciolino|last=Sciolino|first=Elaine|title=The Outlaw State: Saddam Hussein's Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons]]|year=1991|isbn=9780471542995|page=[https://archive.org/details/outlawstate00elai/page/171 171]}}</ref>