Iran-Iraq War Research Articles

The impact of river regulation in the Tigris and Euphrates on the Arvandroud Estuary

The Arvandroud river (also known as Shatt-al-Arab) and its estuary have been degraded due to the changing river flow regime in the Tigris and Euphrates. This study assessed changes in flow from the major rivers and the impacts on the estuary. To assess the river flow changes, three major flow regime attributes were computed: timing (TIF), magnitude (MIF), and variability (VIF). By combining these indices, the total flow regime impact factor (IF) was scaled between 0 and 1, and classified into five groups: Low (0.80<IF<1.0), Incipient (0.60<IF<0.80), Moderate (0.40<IF<0.60), Severe (0.2<IF<0.40), and Drastic (0.0<IF<0.20). Flow regime impact maps were then created for 1941–1955, 1960–1970, 1975–1984, and 1990–2000. These revealed that, over time, the impact has extended along the basin from downstream to upstream, with a significant flow regime change from 1941–1955 to 1990–2000 in the Tigris, Euphrates, and Arvandroud. Analysis of remote sensing data revealed that the change in the flow regime has led to land degradation in the Arvandroud estuary during the past 46 years (1972–2018). In addition, the impact of the Iran–Iraq war (based on degradation of vegetation cover between 1985 and 1988) is 5.1 times of mean rate of change during 1972–2018. This study thus contributes new information on estuaries and the impact of upstream land and water use change.

The Impact of Iran–Iraq War in the Middle East

The Impact of Iran–Iraq War in the Middle East

Химическое оружие Саддама Хуссейна: к вопросу об осведомлённости США в 1980-е годы

The article examines the level of awareness of US officials regarding the Iraqi program for the production of chemical weapons as well as its use before 1988. Both in Russian and foreign historiography, the issue of Iraq's chemical weapons and the United States relationship with the government of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war is either considered superficially or becomes only an aspect of more general and extensive research topics. The period of 1980-1988 was marked by active USA-Iraqi cooperation in order to exert pressure on Iran. It is proved that during this period, Washington was fully aware of the development and use of chemical weapons by Iraq from the first incidents, even before the issue was brought to the level of the UN Security Council. It was not profitable for the United States to promote the dissemination of information discrediting an ally in the fight against Iran. World`s attention to the use of chemical weapons was drawn only after the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

Armed conflict and land-use changes: Insights from Iraq-Iran war in Zagros forests

The role of armed conflicts on land use/cover changes (LUCC), especially in Zagros forests of Iran, remains ambiguous after 30 years of the Iraq-Iran war. Our goal in this study was to assess LUCC in Sardasht related to the Iraq-Iran war in a 22 year period (1976–1998). LUCC of Sardasht city was evaluated using Landsat satellite image time series of MSS and TM data. We classified multi-temporal Landsat imagery using Random Forest classifier, then Land Change Modeler (LCM) was used to change detection and analysis. Change detection results showed that during 1976–1998, 5363.37 ha of forest areas were declined and converted to the croplands, rangelands and built-up areas. The highest decrease of forest areas was in periods of before (1976–1984) and after the war (1988–1993 and 1993–1998), 1331, 1734, and 2066 ha, respectively. While, during the war (1984–1988), only 54 ha decrease has taken place in forest lands of Sardasht. Also, increasing in other land uses during this period was significantly less than other periods. Calculation of annual rate of deforestation showed that the period of 1993–1998, has the highest rate of degradation in forest areas with a rate of −0.45%. While, during and before the war, it was −0.01% and − 0.20%, respectively. With the start of the war, residents of the region migrated to safe areas. The result of this migration was reducing forest conversion to other land uses. Trends in deforestation and forest degradation intensified after the end of the war. The causes of this destruction were destroying regulatory and control infrastructure on forests and natural resources in addition to the return of the inhabitants and an increase in demand for food and agricultural development. Moreover, after the war, the attention of the government was towards supplying the needs of human societies. Therefore, not enough attention was paid to monitoring and controlling over the degradation of natural resources. It is therefore necessary to reduce residents' dependence on natural resources through accurate and detailed planning and to increase their participation in forest conservation. In this regard, conservation programs should be continued strongly.

How Do We Ever Know What Is in Store for Us? Translating Jung’s Work into Persian

ABSTRACT D. Steven Nouriani interviews Parvin Faramarzi, who has translated many of Jung’s well-known works, including Memories, Dreams, Reflections and several volumes from his Collected Works. In a dialogue across the globe, from San Francisco to Tehran, Nouriani discovers Faramarzi’s fascinating journey of fate, which brought her to Jung and transformed her life. As a young woman, Faramarzi was gripped by Jung’s writings and found herself compelled to translate Jung’s most complex writings even through the bombardments of Tehran during the bloody Iran-Iraq War. She found solace in Jung’s writings from the darkness of death, terror, and the violence of war all around her. In a mysterious journey, which she views as an inner calling from the depths, Faramarzi found a companion and a guide in Jung, with whom she had dialogues and active imagination when she was searching for guidance and wisdom. Nouriani is profoundly impressed with Faramarzi’s depth of understanding of Jung and her accurate translations of Jung’s most complex writings into Persian. Parvin Faramarzi’s Persian translations of Jung’s work are impeccable, invaluable to all Persian speakers around the globe, and a major contribution to the field of analytical psychology.

The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988

Iran-Iraq War is one of the bloodiest, longest and, with respect to consequences, the most important battles which occurred in the Middle East in the 20th century. The confrontation of two regional powers lasted eight years and caused devastating effects on these two states and their people. Efraim Karsh’s book offers an ideal explanation for those who want to get information about this war. It has chronological narration and it’s basically composed of nine chapters. In this review, every chapter is studied separately and eventually a general examination is made.

US Position on Kurdish Issue in Southern Kurdistan (1980-1988)

Following the demise of Kurdish revolution in 1975, the US turned their back on the Kurds completely. Kurds became hopeless and were shocked because they had pinned much hopes on them. This rigorous stance from the US angered Kurds as a whole. Therefore, those parties who came into existence after 1975 pursued some sort of anti American slogans believing that the US betrayed Kurds. The US repeatedly made it clear that the Kurdish issue was a domestic issue of Iraq. Kurds trying to enjoy close relations with the US was absolutely unilateral. The Iran-Iraq war paved the way for Iraq to forge relationships with the US to the degree they even received arms and intelligence information from Washington. With time passing Iraq played the role of distancing Kurds from the US. Following the ‘Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend’ the US paved the way for Kurds to get close to Iran, a move which angered Washington. Due to their interests and policies, the US turned a blind eye on Baath regime’s repressive acts against Kurds including the use of chemical weapons against Kurds in 1988 in the city of Halabja which claimed the lives of 5000 civilians and wounded 10000 more, the notorious Anfal genocide campaign and the destruction of thousands of Kurdish villages. There was, however, a degree of differences in stance between the then US administration and the Congress. Though the Congress and House of Representatives took a set of measures against the Baath regime, the US administration objected them. Following the end of Iraq-Iran war, the situation changed to some extent as the US media and Congress appeared to speak louder against the use of chemical weapons against Kurds. The US started to put an end to their supports to Saddam due to regional and global developments, yet the Kurds were not part of their agenda.

Pregnancy Outcomes of Wives of Chemical and Non-Chemical Weapons Exposed Veterans in Ahvaz, Iran: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Sulphur mustard (HD) is a lipophilic caustic alkylating vesicant (blister agent) that has mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Among the studied perturbations are long-term genitourinary (GU) and fertility effects. Approximately 50,000 Iranian soldiers and civilians were exposed to HD during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-1989). This study questioned the wives of Iraq-Iran war veterans to determine the effects of male HD-exposure on pregnancy complications, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and secondary infertility. A retrospective, survey-based cohort study was conducted of wives of Iranian military veterans that survived HD-associated injuries while serving in Ahvaz, Iran during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-1989), as compared to non-exposed veterans serving concomitantly. Patients were identified from a database of injured veterans maintained by the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (Iran) via a systematic random sampling method utilizing a random number table. Using a validated questionnaire, collected data included: demographics; type and severity of chemical injury; spouse's obstetric history (pregnancy number, duration, complications, and outcomes before and after spouse's chemical injury); and secondary infertility. An increase in spontaneous abortion (P = .03), congenital anomalies (P < .0001), and secondary infertility (P = .003) were observed. These findings were greatest amongst those with HD injuries affecting >50% body surface area. No difference in stillbirth, premature birth, or low birth weight was observed. Exposure to HD in combat may have long-lasting fertility effects on soldiers and their spouses, including spontaneous abortion, congenital anomalies, and secondary infertility. Further investigation is needed into the long-term effects of HD exposure as well as methods to better protect soldiers.

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction: History of Signing and Key Points

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (the Chemical Weapons Convention or CWC) was approved by the U.N. General Assembly on 30 November 1992. The treaty entered into force on 29 April 1997. The aim of this work was to study the history of signing of the CWC and its key points. First attempts to develop an international agreement restricting the use of poisons and various toxic substances in hostilities have been made in the 17th century, when the 1675 Strasbourg Agreement between France and the Holy Roman Empire banned the use of poisoned bullets. During the First and Second Peace Conferences in The Hague (1899 and 1907), its participants pledged to refrain from employing «poison or poisoned arms» and from employing «arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury». The First World War showed that this ban turned out to be ineffective, and chemical weapons appeared on the battlefield. After the war, the «Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare», known as the Geneva Protocol of 1925, was developed. But this document did not ban the elaboration and the production of chemical weapons. The High Contracting Parties agreed not to use «asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices» against those States only, that acceded to the Protocol. Moreover, many States-Parties reserved their right to use chemical weapons in response to a first use by an enemy. The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) showed the ineffectiveness of the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Iraq’s massive use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops has accelerated the process of developing an international document – the CWC, the world`s first multilateral disarmament agreement, which provided for the verifiable elimination, within the prescribed time limit, of an entire class of weapons of mass destruction – chemical weapons. Nowadays 192 states have become parties to the CWC. The Russian Federation fully complied with the obligations undertaken by the CWC, the last Russian chemical munition was destroyed in September 2017

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction: History of Signing and Key Points

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (the Chemical Weapons Convention or CWC) was approved by the U.N. General Assembly on 30 November 1992. The treaty entered into force on 29 April 1997. The aim of this work was to study the history of signing of the CWC and its key points. First attempts to develop an international agreement restricting the use of poisons and various toxic substances in hostilities have been made in the 17th century, when the 1675 Strasbourg Agreement between France and the Holy Roman Empire banned the use of poisoned bullets. During the First and Second Peace Conferences in The Hague (1899 and 1907), its participants pledged to refrain from employing «poison or poisoned arms» and from employing «arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury». The First World War showed that this ban turned out to be ineffective, and chemical weapons appeared on the battlefield. After the war, the «Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare», known as the Geneva Protocol of 1925, was developed. But this document did not ban the elaboration and the production of chemical weapons. The High Contracting Parties agreed not to use «asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices» against those States only, that acceded to the Protocol. Moreover, many States-Parties reserved their right to use chemical weapons in response to a first use by an enemy. The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) showed the ineffectiveness of the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Iraq’s massive use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops has accelerated the process of developing an international document – the CWC, the world`s first multilateral disarmament agreement, which provided for the verifiable elimination, within the prescribed time limit, of an entire class of weapons of mass destruction – chemical weapons. Nowadays 192 states have become parties to the CWC. The Russian Federation fully complied with the obligations undertaken by the CWC, the last Russian chemical munition was destroyed in September 2017.

Navigation behaviour of visitors in museums based on visibility analysis and neural network simulation

ABSTRACT Analysing the navigation behaviour in a built environment without a particular destination is a complicated issue when simulating pedestrian behaviour. This navigation is called exploratory navigation. This paper aims to investigate the spatial characteristics of a built environment which affect exploratory navigation. It focuses on visibility graph analysis (VGA) and uses the artificial neural network (ANN) for predicting navigation behaviours of visitors in museums. The movement data of visitors in the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War Museum (IRIIWM) in Tehran, Iran are collected from an observational study. The neural network analyzes the movement features of visitors and produces one single route containing all important movement characteristics of actual visitors. The results show that the network chooses its next target based on spatial visibility, visual perception, distance to a particular section, direction change, visual connectivity, and visual integration. The turn patterns and visual attractors also affect exploratory navigation.

Arming Iran from the heart of Westminster? The Iranian military procurement offices, rumours and intelligence, 1981–1987

ABSTRACT During the Iran-Iraq war there were extensive rumours in the press regarding Iran’s use of Iranian Military Procurement Offices (IMPOs) in London to purchase arms. This article seeks to interrogate the facts behind these rumours: what was going on inside the IMPOs? How much intelligence did the British government have about this? Not a huge amount – largely a result of the IMPOs being a challenging target and Britain’s intelligence priorities in London lying elsewhere. More broadly the paper seeks to provide insights into the challenges of gathering intelligence from – and responding to the activities of – foreign government targets on home turf, as well as providing insights into an under-considered area of intelligence – that surrounding embargoes and sanctions.

The Politics of Monumentalizing Trauma: Visual Use of Martyrdom in the Memorialization of the Iraq-Iran War

This poster focuses on three mediums of commemoration: the monument, the memorial, and the museum as tools of state-sanctioned memory creation, and thereby spaces for politicized rituals of memory which further state-building projects. Specifically, during and after The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) the al-Shaheed Monument (1983), and the Victory Arch (1989) in Baghdad and the Martyrs’ Museum (1996) in Tehran functioned as politically strategic representations of collective trauma. Both the Ba'ath party in Iraq and the emerging Islamic Republic in Iran used these sites to render and politicize memories of violence and loss. Despite obvious differences, the projects in Baghdad and Tehran appealed to a need to address national trauma while bolstering idealized images of statehood. The Ba'athist party under Saddam Hussein capitalized on the collective trauma of the Iraq-Iran war to further a hegemonic Sunni identity, which was both religious and political. The use of immense scale, vulgar displays of power, and Islamic imagery in both the al-Shaheed Monument and Victory Arch linked Sunni and Ba'athist causes and allowed Hussein to characterize the Iran-Iraq War as a sacred project of national and religious vindication. Similarly, the Martyrs’ Museum in Tehran constructs a specific version of history using motifs of the Battle of Karbala, Imam Husayn, martyr and civilian deaths, and blood to tie Iranian national identity to ritualized Shia martyrdom. The Martyrs’ Museum parallels the religification of national identity as seen in Iraq, and configures death as a public, religiopolitical act. Despite Ba'athist Iraq's secular self-image, the strategic harnessing of trauma both Iraq and Iran demonstrates a constructed connection between political state hegemony, religious practice, and rituals of grief. In these ways, state propagated imagery through physical commemorations of the Iran-Iraq War furthered the political – and resulting religious – sectarian divide in the official positions of the two nations.

“Welcome to Divinity College”

“Welcome to Divinity College,” reads a welcome sign to the state-sponsored fieldtrips of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) battlefields in Iran. Rahian-e Noor battlefield tours follow the model of Shia pilgrimage and commemorative rituals, while also tapping into nationalist discourses of the country as an ancient homeland. I ask whether these trips are a means of disseminating knowledge, and what forms of ignorance are assumed to prevail among the visitors that this “Divinity College” seeks to eliminate? Even more importantly, since the tours are state-sponsored, what ignorances are rendered possible, if not encouraged, at the cost of this selective knowledge dissemination? Drawing on fieldwork, I argue that the tours provide a space of encounter with what is presupposed as the visitors’ already acquired knowledge. On RN tours, both knowledge and ignorance are co-constitutive of the transformative power of pilgrimage, where ultimate knowledge is interpreted as putting the already-known-words into deeds.

세계화의 디스토피아 재현: 카릴 처칠의『저 멀리』와 『이것은 의자다』

Since the late 1990’s, Caryl Churchill has tried to present various experimental plays to convert her earlier satiric works inspired from socialist and feminist critiques. Moreover, at the time of millenium, the reach of western power has been expanded by supra-national circuits of financial activity using economical blockades and an armed clash. Churchill displays 21st century’s dystopia which is deconstructed by economical and political globalization in Far Away and This is a Chair. These plays are comprised of illogical, elliptical and fragmented language which breaks the signifying chain to visualize dystopian representation. And they represent globalization of violence set in the global conflict such as Iran-Iraq war and 9/11 terror. The last dystopian representation is reflected as the ecological crisis showing apocalyptic catastrophe affected by climate change and global warming. Thus Churchill’s futuristic perspectives intend to induce audience’s awareness about global issues. In short, this paper focuses on Churchill’s warnings of globalization to prevent environmental crisis and dehumanization.

The Holy Defense Museum in Tehran, or How to Aestheticize War

Abstract In September 2013 the Iranian authorities inaugurated the Holy Defense Museum (Muzeh-i Dafa’-i Moqaddas) in the capital Tehran that also hosts a Martyrs’ Museum (Muzeh-i Shuhada) built in the early 1980s and later renovated. The new museum is part of a grandiose project to commemorate the sacrifice of Iranians during the war provoked by the Iraqi regime (1980–1988). The museum encompasses various aspects of the arts (visual, cinematic, photographic, literary, etc.) shaped to remember and celebrate the martyrs of that war. The 1979 Iranian Revolution and the following Iran-Iraq War produced an enormous amount of visual material; works produced during this crucial period that disrupted the balance of power, both regionally and internationally, constitute an important part of Iran’s recent history. Visual materials produced in that period not only constitute a collective graphic memory of those traumatic years, they also revolutionized Iranian aesthetics. The Islamic Republic of Iran (hereafter IRI) establishment has a long experience in molding contemporary art for political purposes and the Holy Defense Museum represents the zenith of this imposing project. In this paper, I present an analytic and descriptive reading of the museum in light of my direct experience visiting the museum, and I explore its role in maintaining the collective memory of the Iran-Iraq conflict, in celebrating the revolution and in aestheticizing war.

Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship of Metacognitive Beliefs and Attachment Styles With Risky Behaviors in Children of Iran-Iraq War Veterans With Psychiatric Disorders

Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship of Metacognitive Beliefs and Attachment Styles With Risky Behaviors in Children of Iran-Iraq War Veterans With Psychiatric Disorders

Human Casualties and War: Results of a National Epidemiologic Survey in Iran.

Limited studies have reported epidemiologic data on the impact of Iran-Iraq war. This study examines the war casualties for both combatants and civilians on Iranians at national level. Databases of Veterans and Martyrs Affair Foundation (VMAF), Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC) and Ministry of Health were used to collect the data. The prevalence of injuries for both civilians and combatants was presented. Casualties were studied based on conventional and unconventional weapons attacks (1980-2018), separately. The Iran-Iraq war led to 183623 lost lives, 554990 injured and 40240 captured. The mean length of captivity was 45.7 months (1 month-19 years) and 2.7% (n = 575) died in captivity. There were 1439180 war related injuries recorded in databanks, mostly affecting men (98.4%). About 1439180 injuries were recorded, most of them related to conventional weapons (938928 [65.24%]). Remaining artillery and mortar fragmentation in the body (39.5%, n = 371236), psychological disorders (15.9%, n = 228944), and exposure to chemical weapons (11%, n = 158817) were the most prevalent war-related injuries. Human casualties of the Iran-Iraq war on the Iranian side and the health care system are huge even after more than three decades.

Impact of melatonin effects on toxicology of vesicant chemical warfare agents: When science meets reality

In this review we focused our attention on sulfur mustard [bis(2-chloroethyl) sulphide], the main vesicant chemical warfare agent (CWA), which has been widely used in different military conflicts, including World War I and the Iran-Iraq war. Moreover, the evolution of the recent Iraq and Syria conflicts suggests that terrorist groups are aware of the significant psychological and media effects that would be produced by the mere attempt to use CWAs. Sulfur mustard can produce the alkylation of macromolecules bearing sulfhydryl groups, such as DNA and proteins. This vesicant can also generate free radicals which can develop toxicity in the areas exposed, such as the eyes, skin, respiratory tract (inhalation) and gastrointestinal tract (ingestion). In this respect, we advance and propose three salvage mechanisms through which a broad-spectrum multipotent molecule, melatonin, could facilitate neutralization of the toxic damage induced by sulfur mustard radical scavenging. We also speculate that the long-term effects of varying severity can appear after acute poisoning. Besides, melatonin-based therapy strategies can modulate of epigenetic mechanisms and become very suitable for the clinical treatment of victimized patients. However, the utilization of melatonin as a “therapeutic bullet” addressed to counteract the vesicant CWAs needs much additional in vitro research as well as systematic animal studies and controlled translational trials.

IMPACT OF REGIONAL CONFLICTS ON ENERGY SECURITY IN JORDAN

This paper presents a study which analyzes the energy security in Jordan in light of several regional conflicts for the period (1960–2011). We apply an event study method to assess the direct and indirect effects of six regional conflicts on the energy sector in Jordan based on a proposed energy security framework developed from an infusion of frameworks found in literature. The conflicts include the six days war, Lebanese civil war, Iraq-Iran war, First Gulf war, Iraq Invasion, and Egyptian revolution. It was found that the energy sector in Jordan is too sensitive to the regional conflicts due to the lack of diversity of energy suppliers throughout the period of study. Other aspects taken into consideration included strategic storage adequacy, supply chain protection, economic integration, energy demands and prices. The study concludes with a proposed energy policy aiming the reduction of those effects.