La guerre du Chatt al-Arab : les raisons de l'Irak

Abstract

The Chatt al-Arab war: Iraq's point of view, by Philippe Rondot The Chatt al-Arab war launched, on September 22 1980, by Iraq against Iran, does not only express the secular rivalry between two civilizations, the one Arab and the other Persian, but it also responds to seve ral of president Hussein's objectives more or less clearly outlined. The first, the most justifiable it seems, refers to the claim of some "usurped" Arab territories which should have been restored to Iran according to the Alger Agreement of March 1975, and to the revision of this Agreement concerning the division of the Chatt al-Arab waters upon which Iraq wants to have full supremacy. Moreover, the search for a new status (annexation, independence or autonomy) for the Iranian province of Khuzikstan (or Arabistan) should not be neglected unless Baghdad tries, by its military occupation, to obtain the best pledges to convince the Iranians to negotiate. These two reasons are probably combined with the necessity for the Ba'thist regime to neutralize the potential external source of religious turmoil among the Iraqi Shi'i community and even, may be, among the Shi'i minorities of the other Arab countries of the Gulf who are also convinced of this risk of destabilization by instigating the Ayatollah Khomeiny's fall together with that of his Islamic Republic. Finally, this conflict seems to correspond to president Hussein's ambitions to give himself and his own country a role and responsibilities in the Gulf, in the rest of the world and also among the non-aligned countries.