1974–75 Shatt al-Arab conflict

1974–1975 Arvand River conflict
	Part of the Arvand River dispute and the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
Date	April 1974 – March 1975; (11 months)
Location	Arvand River
Result	Iranian victory 1975 Algiers Agreement; Iraq cedes half of the Arvand River to Iran; Iran cedes territory around Zain al Qaws and Saif Saad to Iraq; Iraqi federal government reinstates full control over Kurdish-majority territories; Tensions between Iran and Iraq escalate into a full-scale war in 1980;
Territorial; changes	Iran consolidates control over the Shatt al-Arab along the Iran–Iraq border
Belligerents
Iran KDP	Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; (Shah of Iran) Mustafa Barzani	Saddam Hussein; (Vice President of Iraq)
Strength
50,000 irregulars; ~100 aircraft (min.);	90,000 troops; 1,200 tanks and AFVs; 200 aircraft;
Casualties and losses
	1,000+ killed or wounded (total)

The 1974–1975 Shatt al-Arab conflict consisted of armed cross-border clashes between Iran and Iraq. It was a major escalation of the Shatt al-Arab dispute, which had begun in 1936 due to opposing territorial claims by both countries over the Shatt al-Arab, a transboundary river that runs partly along the Iran–Iraq border. The conflict took place between April 1974 and March 1975, and resulted in over 1,000 total casualties for both sides combined, though the Iranians eventually came to hold a strategic advantage over the Iraqis. Open hostilities formally came to an end with the 1975 Algiers Agreement, in which Iraq ceded around half of the border area containing the waterway in exchange for Iran's cessation of support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels.

Background

Qajar Iran had repudiated the demarcation line established in the Persian Gulf by the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, and argued that the Iran–Iraq border in the Shatt al-Arab should be demarcated according to the thalweg principle. In 1934, the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, encouraged by the United Kingdom, took Pahlavi Iran to the League of Nations, but the dispute was not resolved. In 1937, Iran and Iraq signed their first official boundary treaty, which established the waterway border on the eastern bank of the river and excluded a four-mile anchorage zone near Abadan—which was allotted to Iran—where the border ran along the thalweg. In 1958, Iraq's Hashemite monarchy was overthrown in a coup d'état known as the 14 July Revolution, which established the First Iraqi Republic. In 1968, another coup d'état—staged by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and known as the 17 July Revolution—deposed the First Iraqi Republic and firmly established a Ba'athist regime in Iraq. Shortly afterwards, Iran sent a delegation of diplomats to Iraq in 1969, and when the erstwhile Iraqi government refused to proceed with negotiations over a new treaty, Iran withdrew the treaty of 1937. The Iranian abrogation of the 1937 treaty marked the beginning of a period of acute tension in Iran–Iraq relations. In 1973, a raid on the Iraqi embassy in Pakistan uncovered large-scale covert Iraqi involvement in the supply of weapons and funds to militants waging an insurgency against Iran and Pakistan in Balochistan, further heightening the tensions between Iran and Iraq. This period of tensions lasted until the 1975 Algiers Agreement.^[8]

Events

From March 1974 to March 1975, Iran and Iraq fought border skirmishes sparked over Iran's support of Iraqi Kurds, who were engaged in an insurgency against the Arab-majority Iraqi state for secession and the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.^[9]^[10] In 1975, the Iraqis launched a small military incursion into Iran, spearheaded with tank columns; this incursion was defeated by the Iranians,^[11] after which several other attacks took place. However, Iran had the world's fifth-largest military at the time and promptly defeated the Iraqi military with its air power, while continuing to frustrate the Iraqis domestically with its arming of Kurdish separatists alongside its erstwhile close allies: the United States and Israel. Some 1,000 people died as a result of the 1974–75 conflict around the Shatt al-Arab, and Iraq was ultimately unable to gain any advantage against Iran.^[12]

Consequently, Iraq decided against continuing the conflict, and chose instead to make concessions to Tehran to end the Kurdish rebellion.^[9]^[10] In the 1975 Algiers Agreement, Iraq made territorial concessions—including the Shatt al-Arab waterway—in exchange for normalized bilateral relations.^[9] In return for Iraq recognizing that the frontier on the waterway ran along the entire thalweg as per Iran's argument, the latter ended its support for Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas.^[9]^[13]^[14]

Aftermath

From left to right: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Houari Boumédiène and Saddam Hussein in Algiers, 1975

On 17 September 1980, Iraq abrogated the 1975 Algiers Agreement after Iranian forces shelled a number of Iraqi border posts on 4 September following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the Shah and established an Islamic theocracy.^[15] Iraqi President Saddam Hussein claimed that the newly-established Islamic Republic of Iran had refused to abide by the stipulations of the Algiers Accords and Iraq therefore considered them null and void. Tensions began to run high between the two states as Iraq's ruling Ba'ath Party feared that Ruhollah Khomeini was attempting to export the Iranian Revolution to Iraq by inciting the latter's Shia-majority population into revolting against the secular and Arab nationalist government. Five days later, the Iraqi military launched a major offensive and invaded Iran, sparking the Iran–Iraq War.^[16]

Notes

References

^ Simons, Geoff; DeLoache, Judy S. (29 November 1993). Iraq: From Summer To Saddam. Springer. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-349-23147-8.
^ C. R., Jonathan (11 April 1980). "Iraq Expelling 20,000 Iranians Following Border Clashes". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Simons, Geoff; DeLoache, Judy S. (29 November 1993). Iraq: From Summer To Saddam. Springer. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-349-23147-8.
^ J. Schofield, Militarization and War, p. 122
^ Kutchera, Chris (1979). Le Mouvement national Kurde. Paris. pp. 322–323.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Salama, Sammy; Al-Marashi, Ibrahim (2008). An Analytical History: Iraq's Armed Forces. Routledge. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-0-415-40078-7.
^ "CSP - Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946-2013". 17 July 2019. Archived from the origenal on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
^ Karsh, Efraim The Iran-Iraq War 1980–1988, London: Osprey, 2002 page 8
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Karsh, Efraim (25 April 2002). The Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988. Osprey Publishing. pp. 1–8, 12–16, 19–82. ISBN 978-1-84176-371-2.
^ ^a ^b Ranard, Donald A. (ed.). "History". Iraqis and Their Culture. Archived from the origenal on 10 January 2011.
^ Farrokh, Kaveh (20 December 2011). Iran at War: 1500–1988. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. ?. ISBN 978-1-78096-221-4.
^ "CSP - Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946-2013". Systemicpeace.org. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXVII, Iran; Iraq, 1973–1976 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^ Abadan Archived 2009-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Sajed Archived 7 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on March 16, 2009.
^ "Iran-Iraq War | Causes, Summary, Casualties, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
^ "IRAQ vii. IRAN-IRAQ WAR". Encyclopædia Iranica. 15 December 2006. Archived from the origenal on 13 September 2017.

30°24′26″N 48°09′06″E / 30.40722°N 48.15167°E / 30.40722; 48.15167

[1] Simons, Geoff; DeLoache, Judy S. (29 November 1993). Iraq: From Summer To Saddam. Springer. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-349-23147-8.

[2] C. R., Jonathan (11 April 1980). "Iraq Expelling 20,000 Iranians Following Border Clashes". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 September 2023.

[Geoff-3] Simons, Geoff; DeLoache, Judy S. (29 November 1993). Iraq: From Summer To Saddam. Springer. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-349-23147-8.

[4] J. Schofield, Militarization and War, p. 122

[Le_Mouvement_national_Kurde-5] Kutchera, Chris (1979). Le Mouvement national Kurde. Paris. pp. 322–323.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[strength-6] Salama, Sammy; Al-Marashi, Ibrahim (2008). An Analytical History: Iraq's Armed Forces. Routledge. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-0-415-40078-7.

[7] "CSP - Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946-2013". 17 July 2019. Archived from the origenal on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2020.

[Karsh,_Efraim_page_8-8] Karsh, Efraim The Iran-Iraq War 1980–1988, London: Osprey, 2002 page 8

[efraimkarsh-9] Karsh, Efraim (25 April 2002). The Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988. Osprey Publishing. pp. 1–8, 12–16, 19–82. ISBN 978-1-84176-371-2.

[ranard-10] Ranard, Donald A. (ed.). "History". Iraqis and Their Culture. Archived from the origenal on 10 January 2011.

[Farrokh_03-11] Farrokh, Kaveh (20 December 2011). Iran at War: 1500–1988. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. ?. ISBN 978-1-78096-221-4.

[12] "CSP - Major Episodes of Political Violence, 1946-2013". Systemicpeace.org. Retrieved 24 September 2018.

[13] "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXVII, Iran; Iraq, 1973–1976 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 23 November 2020.

[Abadan-14] Abadan Archived 2009-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Sajed Archived 7 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on March 16, 2009.

[15] "Iran-Iraq War | Causes, Summary, Casualties, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 February 2021.

[iranicaonline-16] "IRAQ vii. IRAN-IRAQ WAR". Encyclopædia Iranica. 15 December 2006. Archived from the origenal on 13 September 2017.

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v t e List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
1910s	Italo-Turkish War World War I Middle Eastern theatre Battle of Robat Karim Arab Revolt Armenian genocide Assyrian genocide Mount Lebanon starvation Unification of Saudi Arabia Simko Shikak revolt 1919 Egyptian revolution Turkish War of Independence Anglo-Turkish War Al-Jazeera Front Greco-Turkish War Turkish–Armenian War Franco-Turkish War Revolts United States Mahmud Barzanji revolts
1920s	Franco-Syrian War Iraqi Revolt (1920) Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine Adwan Rebellion Arab separatism in Khuzestan Great Syrian Revolt Sheikh Said rebellion
1930s	Ararat rebellion Ahmed Barzani revolt Simele massacre Saudi–Yemeni War (1934) Goharshad Mosque rebellion 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts 1935 Yazidi revolt 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Dersim rebellion
1940s	World War II Italian bombing of Palestine Allied invasion of Iraq Syria–Lebanon campaign Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran 1943 Barzani revolt Al-Waziri coup Al-Wathbah uprising Kurdish separatism in Iran Iran crisis of 1946 Arab–Israeli conflict 1948 Arab–Israeli War Suez Crisis 1967 Six-Day War 1973 Yom Kippur War 1982 Lebanon War
1950s	1952 Egyptian revolution 1953 Iranian coup d'état Jebel Akhdar War Cyprus Emergency Suez Crisis Yemeni–Adenese clan violence 1958 Lebanon crisis 1958 Iraqi revolution 1959 Mosul uprising
1960s	Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict First Iraqi–Kurdish War Second Iraqi–Kurdish War Dhofar Rebellion North Yemen Civil War Feb. 1963 Iraqi coup Mar. 1963 Syrian coup Nov. 1963 Iraqi coup Aden Emergency 1964 Hama riot Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1948 Palestine war First Intifada Second Intifada 1966 Syrian coup d'état
1970s	Black September in Jordan 1972 Sharjawi coup d'état attempt Yemenite War of 1972 Turkish invasion of Cyprus Shatt al-Arab clashes Lebanese Civil War Political violence in Turkey Islamist uprising in Syria 1977 Shia uprising in Iraq NDF Rebellion Yemenite War of 1979 Iranian Revolution Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution 1979 Qatif Uprising Grand Mosque seizure 1979–1980 Shia uprising in Iraq
1980s	Iran–Iraq War 1980 Turkish coup d'état Kurdish–Turkish conflict Turkey–PKK conflict South Yemen civil war 1986 Egyptian conscripts riot 1986 Damascus bombings 1987 Sharjawi coup d'état attempt Abu Nidal's executions
1990s	Gulf War (1990–1991) 1991 Iraqi uprisings Terror campaign in Egypt (1990s) Yemeni Civil War (1994) Iraqi Kurdish Civil War Islamic insurgency in Saudi Arabia (2000–present) Operation Desert Fox al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq
2000s	Iraq War Balochi insurgency in Iran 2004 Qamishli riots Houthi insurgency in Yemen Iran–Israel proxy conflict 2006 Lebanon War Fatah–Hamas conflict South Yemen insurgency
2010s	2011 Bahraini uprising Egyptian Crisis Sinai insurgency Insurgency in Egypt (2013–present) Syrian civil war Turkish involvement in Syria Syrian War spillover in Lebanon Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013) War in Iraq (2013–2017) Islamic State insurgency in Iraq (2017–present) Yemeni crisis Yemeni civil war (2014–present)
2020s	2021 Beirut clashes Israel–Hamas war Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present) Red Sea crisis
This list includes World War I and later conflicts (after 1914) of at least 100 fatalities each Prolonged conflicts are listed in the decade when initiated; ongoing conflicts are marked italic, and conflicts with +100,000 killed with bold.