By Reza Vatandoust
Recently, I was involved in a debate
with a prominent member of the Iranian community from Britain who was
in town for business purposes. This debate was in relation to the conflicts in
the Middle East and in particular the outcome
of the devastating Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).
For the
purpose of privilege on identity I have designated the name Mr E. for the
person in question.
I share with you excerpts from that
debate:
Mr E: If the Allies attack
Iran, and attempt to liberate
its people what do you think Iran will do?
Reza Vatandoust: Defend and make them
regret ever having done so..!?
Mr E: I don't think so..! Once faced with
such an attack Iran will quickly resort to the same
tactics it resorted to during the Iran-Iraq war and that is trying to overwhelm
your opponents with sheer numbers, but achieving little except the mass death
and destruction of its soldiers. We saw how that panned out, and we saw the
outcome of that, and just like in that conflict the results would be a total and
utter defeat.
Reza Vatandoust: Are you somehow
suggesting that Iran lost the
war to Iraq..!?
Mr E. Most definitely, you only have to
look at the outcome, and the huge number of casualties incurred by the
Iranian military, to see who lost that war.
Reza Vatandoust: That is the most
ridiculous claim I have ever heard!!!
Mr E: Why is that..!?
Reza Vatandoust: Because, everyone knows
it was a United Nations Security Council (5 Members only in 1987)
Ceasefire UN Resolution 598 which was accepted by both
sides which ended the hostilities. That means a ceasefire, and both sides
stopped fighting with no winner.
Mr E: I know Iranians are emotional people
and like to hide the reality but this is a fact and I as a neutral expert
can tell you that Iran lost the
war.
Reza Vatandoust: I disagree with that
notion completely, since I know that the British pan-Arab establishment
created Saddam Hussein for the simple fact that he hated Iranians and the
Persian culture.
Mr E: Even if that were true, and I am not
saying that it is, what has that got to do with
anything?
Reza Vatandoust: It has everything to do
with it, Sir. It was the UK who brought about Saddam Hussein and his
capacity to wage wars and invade its neighbours (as admitted to by
former Foreign Secretary Robyn
Cook in his resignation speech in the
Commons in 2001) to make the British reality and its designs
on Iran and curbing of her influence in the region a possibility. It
was Britain which
created him and catered to his every need, armed him (the
US providing the hardware)
to achieve its dream of annexing Khuzestan from
Iran, where 10 to 15% of the
entire world’s sweet crude oil reserves are deposited.
Mr E: That's absurd, yes the government of
the UK did have close ties with
Saddam during his early years in power, but as a member of the Security
Council it was always against any aggression in the
region…
Reza Vatandoust: Iraq invaded Iran in the
hope of annexing Khuzestan from Iran and incorporating it into greater
Iraq under the name of "Arabestan", arguing that the ethnic Iranians who
speak a second language [a mutant version of Arabic (heavily overlayed
with Persian words
and grammar)] would be sympathetic and welcoming (with open Arab arms) in
view of such a plan.
Mr E: Oh, right I see and because the
Iraqi Army wasn't able to do so, I mean win that offensive you think that
Iran won the war..!? What
about the fact that...
Reza Vatandoust: No, I am not saying that…
But wait there's more...It was these same Iranians in Ahwaz and Abadan and other major
cities in Khuzestan that created the most fierce resistance to Iraqi
aggression and invasion of their land. By 1982 Iran had completely pushed all Iraqi
military from its soil and deeper into Iraqi territory than ever before
(perhaps to pre-Iraq times when the whole of what is now known as
Iraq was known as
Persia).
Mr E: Yes, Iran did push Iraq back but that doesn't mean
Iran somehow won the
war..!
Reza Vatandoust: Well the facts speak for
themselves…
Mr. E: What facts are they? That Iraq
quickly counter attacked and caused severe casualties and started the
stalemate that lasted till 1988..?
Reza Vatandoust: Shortly after pushing the
Iraqi military out of all Iranian territories in 1982, faced with a huge
number of casualties and mass discontent within the Iraqi military ranks,
in early 1983 Saddam Hussein offered Iran a Ceasefire to end all
hostilities and to go back to the 1975 International borders (per the Algiers
Agreement).
Reza Vatandoust: This
was unilaterally rejected by Iran based on the fact that the offer
did not go far enough; they demanded total war reparations (reaching into
the hundreds of Billions) and a complete acceptance of responsibility and
admission of defeat on the part of Iraq.
Mr. E: And when was this said? I never
heard of that…? It sounds rather convenient…
Reza Vatandoust: No, it doesn’t and I am
not surprised that you should say that..! Because the Security Council
did not put its weight behind such an offer and Iran
knew that Saddam could never be trusted without a unanimous UN
endorsement.
The counter-offer or condition for
the ceasefire set by Iran was rejected by Saddam,
but offered yet again in 1985 in the face of Iranian zeal and military
prowess. The Khomeini government buoyed by this, yet again offer, from a
weaker bargaining position, rejected it and said, we will go all the way
to Baghdad and beyond (in reference to Beitol-Moghadas, Jerusalem)
(Although this second offer was rarely reported in the
media).
Mr E: May be Iran should have
accepted it, that would have definitely looked more favourable in
hindsight from an Iranian point of view.
Reza Vatandoust: No it wouldn’t have and
again the UN Security council never supported such an offer of ceasefire
by Saddam. Plus why should they support this? They were busy making
billions of dollars in arms sales ranging from Intelligence information to
Chemical and Biological weapons to sophisticated conventional weapons
to Saddam Hussein’s regime. They saw a potential to make a few
billions more at the expense of the two warring sides…
Reza Vatandoust: By 1987 Iraq
proposed for a third time an offer of ceasefire, which was then taken up
by UN Security Counsel and subsequently materialised into UN Resolution 598.
Mr E: They accepted it this time though,
didn’t they…?
Reza Vatandoust: Yes, due to the fact that
it had United Nations backing and
legitimacy and the fact that it meant an end to all hostilities and
the ending of war by both sides with the return to pre-war
international borders…
Mr E: They didn’t get what they wanted and
their aims were not met of establishing an Islamic republic in
Iraq and to make
Iraq pay for the
war.
Reza Vatandoust: Their aims were met
because Iran had successfully
defended its territory from the invader and restored its dignity at home,
it had successfully pushed the Iraqi or should I say the
US and British armed
forces back deep into Iraq, in fact some Iranian units were within
sight of Baghdad.
In the end it was a bilateral
ceasefire agreement with the unanimous endorsement of the UN Security Counsel
and an end to war by both sides. No side claims a victory except that upon
accepting it the Iranian armed forces
took up to 3 weeks exiting Iraq. Recent Iraqi governments
have accepted responsibility for the crimes of the Iraqi government and a
promise of reparation payments, reaching into the hundreds of billions of
dollars, the war cost an estimated $1.19 Trillion USD.
This was the contents of my
discussion with the mentioned gentlemen. After our conversation he promised to
conduct some research of his own, and to get back to me. But I have yet to
receive a response from him!
Notes in
conclusion:
In fact this view that Iran
somehow lost the war is shared by many Pan-Arabs and people of British
nationalities. Amongst Iranians this view is widely accepted by the ‘so called’
resistance organisation the MEK (Mojahedin-Khalgh).
But these groups have twisted the
available information to satisfy their deep seated frustration and anger towards
the Iranian people, and its ability to defend its territory and to successfully
push back the aggressor hundreds of kilometres deep into Iraqi
territory.
At the end of the day it is up to
the Iranian people to defend the truth and answer any attempts by enemies of the
Iranian nation at falsifying the true outcome of that conflict emphatically and
unequivocally.
I find that the best way to answer
any of these false claims is by educating the maker of the false
claim and to ask the following 2 questions:-
1) That if “Iran did lose the
Iran-Iraq war” then why did Iran reject on 2 occasions, formally,
an offer of ceasefire by Iraq (1983, 1985) and only in the face of
domestic and United Nations pressure accept it on a third occasion in 1988
on a bilateral basis?
2) And why did (if Iran lose the war?) it take up to 3
weeks for the Iranian military just to leave Iraqi territory, where it
was in fact Iran who was invaded in 1980 by Iraq?
It is unfortunate that some Iranians
are infected by falsified claims and opinions of anti-Iranian
individuals/groups/organisations mostly prevalent in the United Kingdom
and other western nations.
Western countries were heavily
involved and aided and abetted the genocidal regime of Saddam Hussein during its
invasion of Iran (facing one military defeat
after another) when it used Chemical and Biological weapons against Iranian troops and
civilians and against defenceless Kurdish civilians (see Halabjah).
It is understandable that Western
governments should feel uneasy and prefer to water down their involvements with
the Iraqi regime during the Iran-Iraq war. After all, who can argue that Iranian
pride doesn’t stand to gain the most from the failure of the Iraqi (US and
UK) invasion of Iran..?
The entire strategy has always been that; Iranian pride should never be allowed
to flourish…
Ultimately, the British and American
proxy war (via Saddam Hussein) against Iran which was in fact lost, is one that
the west has to come to terms with, and realise that their unilateral wet dreams
of annexing Khuzestan not only failed but created awareness amongst Iranians
about their true designs on our beloved motherland.
It is not surprising therefore to
see western governments scrambling and fiercely competing against each other in
the demonization process of Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime, whilst at
the same time doing a masterful job of concealing their involvements with that
regime; so that it mightn’t become public knowledge.
About the author:
Reza Vatandoust is an International
Trade Law expert. He has a Masters in Law, BSc
Copyright ©2006 Reza C.
Vatandoust
For further information see: Iran-Iraq War
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580640_2/Iran-Iraq_War.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War
... Payvand News - 8/26/06 ... --
