Why and how did Saddam regime invade the Islamic Republic of Iran? This question has not a simple answer. The reason given by Saddam for invading the Islamic Republic of Iran’s territory were border disputes. But the real cause for waging of an all-out war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, just 19 months after the victory of the Islamic Revolution is beyond the reasons given by Saddam. In fact, Iraq’s territorial and border disputes with Iran had been an excuse for invasion.

The main goal for Saddam was the overthrow of the nascent Islamic Republic of Iran in a bid to satisfy his masters in Washington and Tel Aviv as he was lured by them to be the next leader of the Arab World.

The reason for Saddam to invade Iran should be viewed at three national, regional and international levels. First we analyze the national aspects of the invasion of Iranian territory. For this purpose, we make a brief mention of Iran-Iraq border disputes. The disputes date back to the time when Iraq was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Lack of clear solution to the disputes and definite delineation of borders led to disagreements after Iraq's independence in 1932. The way of using the waters of Arvand River remained a major unsolved issue. Iraq claimed full sovereignty over and shipping in Arvand River (Shat al-Arab as it is called by Arabs). But as the despotic regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a stooge of western regimes especially the United States of America, due to the US political and military support, Iran was the unrivaled power of the Persian Gulf region and Iraq could not encounter Iran. The US had full control and dominance over Iran and made it the region’s gendarme with political and military support. In such circumstances, Iraq resolved its border and territorial disputes with Iran in 1975 according to an agreement known as Algiers Accord. But Saddam was always discontent with the accord and kept looking for an opportunity to annul it. Saddam thought that with the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the political instability and security problems of the post-revolution era, it was a good opportunity to nullify the Algiers Accord and invade Iran. The hegemonic desires of the Global arrogance and devilish schemes of the Zionist regime coupled with Saddam's own ambitions set the stage for waging an all-out war against the Islamic Republic.

In April 1980, Saddam declared as one of the conditions for the cessation of the Iran-Iraq war the restoration of sovereignty over Arvand River as per the time before 1975. The Iraqi dictator stressed that Iraq is prepared to resolve all its differences with Iran by force and thus he invaded Iran.

In the early days of invasion on Iran, Iraq in a statement tried to take the upper hand as it raised some conditions for ceasefire to show that Iran was the invader and Iraq had entered Iranian territory in defensive conditions. In the statement, Iraq said that peace could be realized under the condition of fulfillment of several conditions: Recognition of Iraqi territorial rights by Iran, stopping of intervention in Iraqi internal affairs, vowing on mutual respect for good neighborly relations and the return of the three islands in the Persian Gulf to their Arab owners.

The issue of the three Persian Gulf islands (the Lesser Tunb, the Greater Tunb and Abu Musa) was raised just as allegations by Saddam while they had been under Iran's rule for several millennia. The islands were periodically captured and occupied by British forces. Yet as the British invading troops left the Persian Gulf in 1971 and were replaced by the Americans, the islands returned to their rightful owner, Iran. Since that year the United Arab Emirates, emboldened and enticed by its western masters, raised certain allegations against the three islands and the Arab regimes and enemies of Iran supported these allegations. In order to garner the political and financial support of reactionary Arab regimes for invading Iran, Saddam also included separation of the three islands on the list of conditions for the ceasefire.

Saddam’s ambitions in attacking Iran were much beyond separating part of Iran’s territory and overthrowing the nascent Islamic Republic system of government. For Saddam invasion of Iran was the climax of his policies to attract the US towards the capabilities of Iraq to replace Iran as the gendarme of the region. This was due to the fact that the US policy toward the region had been focused on providing necessary military equipment to its vassals and lackeys in the region. Thus, the US concentrated on Saudi Arabia and Iraq as US allies in the region in an array against then eastern superpower (Soviet Union) to guarantee the security of the fake regime of Israel. It is within the framework of this double-standard policy of Nixon doctrine that Iran is referred to as the gendarme of the region. Saddam supposed that Iraq with the specific conditions of that era could play this role and turn into an alternative of the Shah regime.

In a review of such an ambition among the Iraqi leadership, Newsweek magazine argued that Iraq's goals were not less than the dominance of the Persian Gulf and perhaps the entire West Asia (Middle East as it is called by the westerners) with the inevitable cost of the two superpowers; for, there was a vacuum that had to be filled. Egypt was isolated and dismissed for participating in compromising talks at Camp David. Syria was intrigued with domestic problems, and Iran, which was once the gendarme of the Persian Gulf, was in chaos. So, Iraq was a promising candidate for this vacuum. Because it possessed a vast array of modern weapons mainly provided by the Soviet Union and Western Europe. Unlike Saudi Arabia and other reactionary Persian Gulf sheikhdoms, it had a population of 13 million. In short, Saddam began his attack on Iran to become the gendarme of the region.

The other objective of Saddam regime in attacking Iran was to overthrow the Islamic Republic system. In an interview on November 12, 1980, Saddam said: "We are not saddened by the destruction and partition of Iran, and we state explicitly that while this country is our enemy, any Iraqi or perhaps any Arab will be happy with partition and destruction of Iran." 8 months after the war, the Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz said: "The existence of five small Irans is better than the existence of a united Iran. We will support the riot of Iranian nation and we will turn all of our attention to Iran." Saddam explained the same objective in Farvardin of 1360 (April 1981) in front of some members of the National Army heading to the battlefields as follows: "We are prepared to provide any aid including weapons which are needed by the Arab people of Khuzestan and the other ethnicities of Iran especially the Kurds, the Baluchis and all real and honest patriots. We are not interested in Iran’s territorial integrity and this is our strategy which we have declared long ago." We will discuss this more in the next program.

FK/RM/MG