Iraq: Facts

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Iraq Facts

• Population 17.9 million (1991 estimate)
• Language Official language is Arabic (spoken by
  about 80 of population 15 speak Kurdish)
• Religion Sunni (Iraqs regime) and Twelver Shia
  (more conservative) Islam (95)
• Ethnic groups Arab (72), Kurds (23), the Kurds
  are mainly based on the north and the north-west
  of the country

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Recent History
King Faisal I (1885-1933)

• 1920 Placed under a League of Nations mandate,
  administered by Great Britain
• Provided the country with a constitution and a
  bicameral legislature.
• Put in place King Faisal I
• A 25 year Treaty of Alliance was signed
• On October 3, 1932, the British mandate ended and
  Iraq was established as an independent state.
• British retained military bases and continued to
  exercise strong political and military influence
  in the country.
• The Iraq Petroleum Company was a conglomerate of
  British, French and U.S. interests.

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Recent History
King Faisal II (1935-1958)
King Ghazi I (1912-1939)

• King Faisal I died in 1933 but the regimes under
  King Ghazi I (son) and King Faisal II (grandson)
  continued to be pro-British.
• The Baghdad Pact was signed in 1955, which was an
  agreement on collective regional security, urged
  upon Iraq by the British.

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Revolution
Abdul-Karim Kassem (1914-1963)
Abdul Salam Arif (1921-1966)
Abdul Rahman Arif (1918-)

• A military revolution overthrew King Faisal II on
  14 July 1958, and a left-wing nationalist regime
  under the leadership of Brigadier Abdul-Karim
  Kassem came to power.
• Iraq withdrew from the Baghdad Pact in 1959.
• Kassem was assassinated in 1963.
• A bloody and violent Ba'thist Arab nationalist
  regime under Colonel Abdul Salem Arif resulted.
• He was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman
  Arif in 1966.

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The Ba'athist Revolution of 1968

• The foundations of the modern regime in Iraq were
  laid with the seizure of power by the Arab
  Renaissance (Ba'ath) Socialist Party on July 17
  1968.
• Major General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became
  President and Prime Minister of Iraq, his deputy
  was Saddam Hussein.
• The regime undertook wide-ranging social and
  economic reforms to try and increase its
  popularity.
• It nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company and
  was bolstered by rises in oil prices in 1972 and
  1974, following the Arab-Israeli war.

Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr (1914-1982)
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The Kurds in Iraq

• In March 1970 an agreement was reached between
  the government and the Kurdish Democratic Party
  (KDP), over the establishment of an autonomous
  Kurdish area.
• However, it quickly became clear that the
  promises made in this 'March Manifesto' would not
  be fulfilled.
• Conflict broke out between the Kurds and
  government's armed forces in the spring of 1974.
• The Kurds were supported by the Shah of Iran, who
  was concerned about what he saw as Soviet
  influence over the Iraqi regime.

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The Kurds in Iraq

• Jordanian intervention led to the signing of the
  Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq in March
  1975.
• Iran closed its border with Iraq which led to the
  collapse of the Kurdish military force.
• Kurdish resistance was violently repressed,
  villages were destroyed and their inhabitants
  resettled in specially constructed villages
  surrounded by barbed wire and fortified posts.

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The Rise of Saddam Hussein

• The economic strength of the regime in the late
  1970s led to a concurrent rise in its political
  strength.
• The Ba'ath party itself lost influence and real
  power was increasingly concentrated in the hands
  of Saddam Hussein and his political backers.
• The party increasingly became an instrument of
  the state.
• In July 1978 a decree was passed which made any
  non-Ba'thist political activity illegal and
  membership of any other political party
  punishable by death for all members or former
  members of the armed forces.

Saddam Hussein (1937- )
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The Rise of Saddam Hussein

• President Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr announced his
  resignation, and the handover of power to Saddam
  Hussein, on 16 July 1979.
• Huge oil revenues enabled Saddam to spend large
  sums on welfare and building projects, and living
  standards improved due to the expanding economy.
• Saddam Hussein concentrated on creating his own
  personality cult portraits and statues of him
  were built all over the country.
• The Republican Guard - the elite presidential
  security force - was also formed in this period.

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The Iran/Iraq War

• Relations with Iran seriously deteriorated in the
  period following the Iranian Islamic revolution
  of 1979.
• Cross-border incidents resulted in Iraq invading
  Iran and in a full outbreak of war on 22
  September 1980.
• Massive losses were experienced by both sides and
  in 1986 a stalemate was reached.
• Iraq was supported by its Arab neighbors,
  particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and by the
  US, the Soviet Union and France.

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The Iran/Iraq War

• The UN Security Council passed Resolution 598,
  calling for an end to the war, on 20 July 1987.
• It was not accepted by Iran, who launched a
  further attack on northern Iraq in the spring of
  1988.
• The Iraqi air force responded with poison gas,
  causing 5,000 civilian deaths in Kurdish northern
  Iraq.
• Iran finally agreed to a cease-fire in July 1988.

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The Iran/Iraq War

• The Iran/Iraq war resulted in an estimated
  400,000 deaths (roughly 1/4 Iraqi and 3/4
  Iranian), and around 750,000 people were injured.
  
• Despite large foreign debts and damaged
  infrastructure, the Iraqi regime was actually
  strengthened militarily by the war with Iran.
• Military production had increased significantly,
  and the army had also increased in size, to a
  total force of around one million. This
  consolidated Saddam Hussein's grip on power.

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The Gulf War

• By the late 1980s Iraq was experiencing an
  economic crisis, largely caused by misguided
  economic reforms.
• 5 billion a year had been allocated to military
  re-armament projects.
• Inflation and the cost of living were rising
  dramatically.
• Iraq's relations with its neighbors declined,
  particularly when Saddam laid claim to the
  Rumaila oilfield that ran from Iraq into northern
  Kuwait.

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The Gulf War

• On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. On August
  8 Iraq announced its annexation of Kuwait.
• The UN Security Council quickly passed a series
  of resolutions condemning Iraq's actions.
• Murders and abuses of Kuwaitis by Iraqi troops
  were prevalent.
• Iraq was backed politically by the PLO, and also,
  rather hesitantly, by Jordan.
• Forces from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco,
  Britain, France, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the US
  began gathering in Saudi Arabia. Iraq did not
  receive military support from any state.

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The Gulf War

• The UN Security Council passed Resolution 678,
  authorizing military force to be used against
  Iraq, at the end of November 1990.
• On 17 January 1991, the allied forces began their
  aerial bombardment of Iraq.
• The Iraqi army surrendered in large numbers on
  February 23 and 24.
• The US declared a cease-fire on February 28 1991
  and the Gulf War was over.

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Post-Gulf War

• Immediately after the Gulf War, the UN began
  carrying out its program of dismantling Iraq's
  weapons of mass destruction.
• Weapons inspection teams were set up to make
  regular visits to Iraq to see that it was
  complying with the terms of the UN ceasefire
  resolutions.

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Lecture Based on a Special Report by the BBC News

• November 7, 1997