Part of the IGCSE Paper 2 Study Topic: “Why did Events in the Gulf Matter?”

What were the causes and consequences of the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88?

Task: A biased government speech explaining the causes of the war
On the 22nd September 1980, the longest conventional war of the 20th Century began when Iraq launched an invasion of Iran. The Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, dubbed it the “Whirlwind War” in which he expected Iran to be defeated relatively swiftly due to the turmoil it was experiencing after the overthrow of the Shah by Ayatollah Khomeini.