Chemical Weapons in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). 2. Combat Use of Chemical Weapons

Abstract

The Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) was the result of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. Certain longstanding territorial disputes and the absence of mutually recognized state border between the rivalry countries were among the direct pretexts of the war. At the same time neither Iraq, nor Iran were ready to serious war, both did not want it in such scales, and they did not possess chemical weapons (CW). During the war, Iraq enjoyed broad international support. At the same time, revolutionary Iran turned into a pariah state. By 1983, Iraq began to suffer a defeat from Iran, which possessed considerable human resources. Because of that certain Western countries helped Iraq (on the paid basis) to start its own CW program and the industrial production of chemical agents and munitions. Gradually CW became an integral part of the offensive and defensive operations, planned by the Iraqi command. Due to the technologies, equipment and chemicals, supplied by certain foreign, mainly Western firms, Iraq was able to start the industrial production of mustard gas, tabun and sarin/cyclosarin, as well as to start the synthesis of VX. During the war, CW turned from purely defensive into offensive means of warfare. The war ended as chemical. In 1988 all the operations, which led to the end of the war, were carried out by Iraq with the use of CW. At the same time, the war revealed certain weaknesses of chemical protection means, possessed by both sides. Thus, it appeared to be impossible to sort effectively the wounded and affected by CW during the medical evacuation phase. The existing decontamination means turned out to be ineffective in case of mass arrival of the affected into hospitals. Because of that, the secondary contamination of medical stuff took place even in Western hospitals. The protective equipment against blister agents, used by NATO countries, turned out to be insufficient in case of use of «dry yperite» by the Iraqis. The accepted schemes of treatment of the affected by tabun also showed their inefficiency. As we find out, the experience of the Iran-Iraq chemical war is studied actively in the West up to now.

Keywords

• the iran-iraq war
• sulfur mustard
• tabun
• iraqi chemical weapons program
• chemical weapons
• cyclosarin