Foreign states tilted: many Arab capitals and Western suppliers backed Iraq as a container of the revolution, while Iran was isolated. By 1982 Iran had expelled most invaders and faced a choice: stop, or carry the war into Iraq. Khomeini's government chose to continue toward Basra and a political end in Baghdad that never came.
The "war of the cities" used missiles and air raids on Tehran, Baghdad and others. The tanker war drew in US reflagging of Kuwaiti ships (1987) and the 1988 shoot-down of Iran Air 655 -- a civilian airliner disaster inside the naval melee.
Check each criteria to confirm findings against the atlas verdict.
Foreign states tilted: many Arab capitals and Western suppliers backed Iraq as a container of the revolution, while Iran was isolated. By 1982 Iran had expelled most invaders and faced a choice: stop, or carry the war into Iraq. Khomeini's government chose to continue toward Basra and a political end in Baghdad that never came.
The "war of the cities" used missiles and air raids on Tehran, Baghdad and others. The tanker war drew in US reflagging of Kuwaiti ships (1987) and the 1988 shoot-down of Iran Air 655 -- a civilian airliner disaster inside the naval melee.
Iran accepted 598 in July 1988 after battlefield reverses and isolation -- Khomeini compared it to drinking poison. A ceasefire is not a peace treaty; prisoners and the Shatt remained disputed for years.
Iraq's later Kuwait war (1990) is a sequel of debt, army size, and misread US signals -- a different file that this war helps explain. 1980-88 fused a river-border dispute, two authoritarian projects, and great-power tilt -- without a 1945-style settlement.
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Next question: 12 December 1979 coup · Open the topic: Iran-Iraq War
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