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The Iranian Revolution (1979)
In 1979, the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty, along with the last Shah, would usher in a series of drastic socio-political, diplomatic and economic shifts in Iran, replacing the Imperial State of Iran by the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran.
For many, the Revolution represented religious revivalism against materialism and imperial corruption. For others, it was a rejection of the aggressive modernisation and Westernisation campaign instigated by the monarchical government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as the “White Revolution”. The White Revolution granted women the right to vote, instituted a series of controversial land reforms, campaigned against profiteering, and introduced free and compulsory education, amongst other changes.
A further reason for the revolution of 1979 can be found 26 years earlier in the 1953 Iranian coup d’état that saw the United States and Britain covertly joining forces to depose the elected Iranian nationalist leader Mohammed Mossadegh, whose opposition to British/Russian control of Iranian natural resources had led to the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1951.
The new regime, led by religious cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, waged war against all the Western traditions that had first trickled and then poured into Iran. This anti-Western sentiment would culminate in the Iran hostage crisis in November 1979, when 66 hostages at the US embassy were seized.
The Assembly of Experts put forward a new constitution to referendum, which created a religious government based on Khomeini’s pro-theocracy book, Islamic Government. The constitution would give sweeping powers to the leading Islamic jurist (faqih) – a role occupied by Khomeini himself.
Iraq invades Iran (1980)
Causes of the war
The Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and ended in stalemate eight years later in 1988.
There are two main motives ascribed to Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Iran. One motive is that he invaded for geopolitical gain when international factors worked in his favour. That is, he used the sudden transition of power in Iran to claim the entire Shatt al-Arab – a strategically important river – and enact plans to annex Iran’s Khuzestan Province. Following the revolution, Iran’s military power also weakened dramatically, as large-scale desertions and purges took place within the armed forces and the economy floundered, leaving the country vulnerable to Iraqi incursions.
The other is that he invaded to prevent Iran from fomenting revolution in Iraq. In contrast to the Pahlavi regime, whose leaders had refrained from interfering in Iraqi affairs, the new Shiite theocracy served as a model (and platform) for Islamist revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the existing regime. Iraq proved particularly vulnerable given that Shia Muslims made up the majority of its population and had historically been marginalised. In the 1970s. Shia opposition groups grew in strength and number, culminating in the uprising of 1977 when demonstrators took to the street to protest the attempted ban on the Shia annual pilgrimage to Karbala.
Iraq’s initial war plan was to destroy Iran’s oil sources, refineries and transportation routes, while driving Iranian civilians from the battlefield. Iraqi tactics also sought to minimise their own casualties by exploiting artillery use and avoiding frontal infantry assaults.
Iraq’s geographic vulnerabilities
Iraq is the only member of OPEC (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) whose oil exports cannot reach the outside world without crossing into foreign territories (Syria, Lebanon and Turkey), or without coming perilously close to Iran to the south. In other words, it cannot ensure domestic prosperity without relying on the goodwill of its neighbours.
Iraq’s international machinations are therefore complicated by its being bordered by several states which teeter constantly on the verge of internal chaos and civil war – namely, Syria and Iran. It also remains within striking distance of fighter-bombers and ballistic missiles from Israel, as well as of US aircraft operating from NATO bases.
Effects of the Iran-Iraq war
While Iraq initially made some impressive gains, laying siege to the city of Khurramshahr and the important industrial cities of Abadan and Ahvaz, Saddam Hussein’s forces quickly encountered logistical difficulties – the result of poor planning and stiff Iranian resistance.
The war resulted in around 400,000 deaths, cost hundreds of billions of dollars in destruction and foregone revenue, and ended with a return to the status quo.
One notable effect is that, coming just one year after the 1979 revolution, it consolidated the new Islamic Republic in Iran and helped to foster its vast armed proxy network across the region – most notably, Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The group is now indispensable to Iran’s expansionist ambitions, having helped mobilise, establish and train militia groups across North Africa, Palestine and the Gulf states.
Iran conceptualised the war, not only as a defence of territorial integrity, but as a “Third Revolution” and as a gift and challenge from God. Muslim citizens, it was said, would be rewarded with martyrdom. The war was also conceived as a way of exporting Iran’s Islamist regime to Iraq. Ali Khamenei (now the Supreme Leader of Iran), who served as third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, claimed: “After the enemy has returned within his own border, then it is our duty and obligation to exert ourselves until the nation of Iraq is delivered from the evil of oppressive powers and an Islamic government and republic have been founded.”
Tehran began to instruct its proxies to carry out suicide bombings across the region, including the 1981 bombing of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Hezbollah’s attack on the American Marine barracks in Lebanon, and terrorist attacks against the US and French embassies in Kuwait by members of Iraq’s Dawa Party.
Gulf monarchies, in turn, began to push back against Iranian encroachment, unleashing their own brand of Islamic extremism, while increasing their oil output to depress prices and damage Iran’s financial prospects.
The Iran-Iraq war also conditioned Iran’s approach to the United States: the Islamic Republic of Iran held Washington responsible for Iraq’s machinations, after the US opted to side with Saddam Hussein’s cruel dictatorship, providing Baghdad with intelligence data and commercial credits.
The war also consolidated the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein who had used war as a pretext for authoritarian rule.
However, the war depressed Iraq’s oil production from a record 3.3 million BPD (barrels per day) in early 1980 to just 0.8 million BPD within a year, while costs of war weighed heavily on the country’s ability to pay for imports. By the war’s end, Iraq had accumulated external debts of over $100 billion.
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