Word: baghdad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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According to Administration sources, the resumption of ties will be effected next week, when Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz meets in Washington with President Reagan. Washington officials believe Iraq's four-year war with Iran has been the incentive for Baghdad to move closer to the U.S. Says one U.S. diplomat: "They have now made it clear they can defend themselves by themselves, so this would be the proper moment to go ahead and reestablish ties with...
Washington will maintain its public position of neutrality in the Iraq-Iran conflict; it has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since ties were broken in 1980 during the hostage crisis. At best, recognition of Iraq will create a de facto axis linking Washington, Baghdad and Moscow, which is Iraq's ally, that could help bring Iran to the bargaining table...
...French-made Exocet missiles. In September, France airlifted 150 of the missiles to Iraq's Habbaniya air force base. When pilots for the fighters have been trained, Iraq is expected to step up its attacks on ships departing from Iran's main oil terminal at Kharg Island. Baghdad's oft-stated goal is to cut off Iran's oil exports, which has hitherto been impossible to achieve with its meager fleet of three Super Etendard fighters...
Iran last week announced an offensive against Iraq in the flat wasteland to the east of Baghdad. Iraq announced that the invaders had been driven back. Whatever the real out come, the battle marked a resumption of a ground war that had been stalled since last February. Nonetheless, the encounter did not seem to be the "final offensive" that Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini has been threatening to launch for the past eight months...
...cause of the present war. In 1975 the Shah of Iran signed an agreement with Iraq that gave Iran a share of the Shatt al Arab waterway at the head of the gulf in exchange for the Shah's withdrawal of support for Kurds fighting the Baghdad regime. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched his war against Iran in 1980 partly to recover what he had signed away five years earlier. He now has fewer problems with Kurds than Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini does, largely because he created an autonomous Kurdish region within Iraq in 1970. Still, roads in Iraqi Kurdistan...