What Caused the Iran-Iraq War?

Podcast: The War Office · The Operations Room

Opublikowano: 2026-08-04

In September 1980, border clashes between Iran and Iraq escalated into war. Tensions had been simmering between the two countries for decades. Disputes over control of the Shatt al-Arab river, and thus access to the Persian Gulf for Iraq, had long been a source of contention. Political upheaval in both countries created the conditions for war. Years of back and forth negotiations between the governments of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the military controlled government of Iraq had done little to calm tensions. The rise of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the 1979 Iranian Revolution led...