International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War

During the Iran–Iraq War, both Iran and Iraq received large quantities of weapons and other material useful to the development of armaments and weapons of mass destruction.

Iran

Military armaments/technology

During the early years of the war, Iran's arsenal was almost entirely American-made, left over from the Imperial Armed Forces of the dethroned Shah. Iran's foreign supporters gradually came to include Syria and Libya, through which it obtained Scud missiles. It purchased weaponry from North Korea and the People's Republic of China, notably the Silkworm anti-ship missile. Iran acquired weapons and parts for its Shah-era U.S. systems through covert arms transactions from officials in the Reagan Administration, first indirectly through Israel and then directly. It was hoped Iran would, in exchange, persuade several radical groups to release Western hostages, though this did not result; proceeds from the sales were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

According to the report of the U.S. Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair issued in November 1987, "the sale of U.S. arms to Iran through Israel began in the summer of 1985, after receiving the approval of President Reagan." [Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/Iran_Contra_Affair.html] These sales included "2,008 BGM-71 TOW anti-Tank missiles, and 235 parts kits for MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles had been sent to Iran via Israel." Further shipments of up to US$2 billion of American weapons from Israel to Iran, consisting of 18 F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers, 46 A-4 Skyhawk fighter-bombers, and nearly 4,000 missiles were foiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, and "unverified reports alleged that Israel agreed to sell Iran AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, radar equipment, mortar and machine gun ammunition, field telephones, M-60 tank engines and artillery shells, and spare parts for C-130 transport planes." [Links:
* http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/intro.htm
* http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/russiantext.html] The London Observer also estimated that Israel's arms sales to Iran during the war totalled US$ 500 million annually, [The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1186/8611002.html] and Time Magazine reported that throughout 1981 and 1982, "the Israelis reportedly set up Swiss bank accounts to handle the financial end of the deals." [Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/iran/ir861208.html] For more on Israeli Hawk missile sales to Iran see. [Richard Johns, "Arms Embargo Which Cannot Withstand The Profit Motive"," Financial Times (London), 13 November 1987]

Aircraft

During war, Iran operated U.S.-manufactured F-4 and F-5 fighters, as well as AH-1 Cobra light attack helicopters. It also operated a number of F-14 Tomcat fighters, which, according to a few sources, proved devastating to the Iraqis in the early phases of the war. However, due to the Iranian government's estrangement, spare parts were difficult to obtain. Despite this the Iranians managed to maintain a constant presence with their Tomcats during the entire conflict, mostly due to a combination of spare parts acquired on the black market and parts made in Iran. These were supported by KC-135s, a refueling tanker based on the Boeing 707. [See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm]

Iraq

Military armaments/technology

Iraq's army was primarily armed with weaponry it had purchased from the Soviet Union and its satellites in the preceding decade. During the war, it purchased billions of dollars worth of advanced equipment from the Soviet Union, France, [BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3324053.stm] as well as from the People's Republic of China, Egypt, Germany, and other sources. Germany [Deutsche Welle report: [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,716376,00.html] ] United Kingdom, France, Spain (Explosivos Alaveses), Canada, Italy and the United States provided Iraq with biological and chemical weapons technology and the precursors to nuclear capabilities.

The sources of Iraqi arms purchases between 1970 and 1990 (10% of the world market during this period) are estimated to be:

The U.S. sold Iraq $200 million in helicopters, which were used by the Iraqi military in the war. These were the only direct U.S.-Iraqi military sales and were valued to be about 0.6% of Iraq's conventional weapons imports during the war. [See: http://web.archive.org/web/20040601181327/projects.sipri.se/armstrade/Trnd_Ind_IRQ_Imps_73-02.pdf] The Reagan Administration allegedly began to allow Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt to transfer to Iraq American howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20010513085039/http://www.wlv.ac.uk/shass/cv/phythian.html Phythian] , p. 35. Phythian cites Murray Waas and Craig Unger, "In the Loop: Bush's Secret Mission," New Yorker, p. 70. ] Reagan personally asked Italy’s Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to channel arms to Iraq. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20010513085039/http://www.wlv.ac.uk/shass/cv/phythian.html Phythian] , p. 35. p. 36 Phythian cites Alan Friedman, Spider's Web: Bush, Saddam, Thatcher and the Decade of Deceit, (London: Faber, 1993), pp. 81-84.]

The United States, United Kingdom, and Germany also provided "dual use" technology (computers, engines, etc.) that allowed Iraq to expand its missile program and radar defenses. The U.S. Commerce Department, in violation of procedure, gave out licenses to companies for $1.5 billion in dual-use items to be sent to Iraq. The State Department was not informed of this. Over 1 billion of these authorized items were trucks that were never delivered. The rest consisted of advanced technology. Iraq's Soviet-made Scuds had their ranges expanded as a result. [See:
*http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/LicenseMD.html
*http://www.iraqwatch.org/bulletins/vol2iss1jan03.htm]

Yugoslavia sold weapons to both countries for the entire duration of the conflict.
Portugal helped both countries: it was not unusual seeing Iranian- and Iraqi-flagged ships side-by-side in Sines (a town with a deep-sea port).Fact|date=February 2007

Aircraft

Iraq's air force used Soviet weapons and reflected Soviet training, although it expanded and upgraded its fleet considerably as the war progressed. It conducted strategic bombing using Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers. Its fighters included the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, later supplemented by large purchases of Sukhoi Su-22s and French Dassault Mirage F1s. It also deployed the Anglo-French Aérospatiale Gazelle scout helicopter and the Exocet anti-ship missile. [See: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/airforce.htm]

Chemical weapons

According to Iraq's report to the UN, the know-how and material for developing chemical weapons were obtained from firms in such countries as: the United States, West Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the People's Republic of China. [Link: The Independent, Wednesday, 18 December, 2002: http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorbkgd/uscorpsiniraq.html]

In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Eastern and Western corporations and countries, as well as individuals, that exported a total of 17,602 tons of chemical precursors to Iraq in the past two decades. By far, the largest suppliers of precursors for chemical weapons production were in Singapore (4,515 tons), the Netherlands (4,261 tons), Egypt (2,400 tons), India (2,343 tons), and Federal Republic of Germany (1,027 tons). One Indian company, Exomet Plastics (now part of EPC Industrie) sent 2,292 tons of precursor chemicals to Iraq. The Kim Al-Khaleej firm, located in Singapore and affiliated to United Arab Emirates, supplied more than 4,500 tons of VX, sarin, and mustard gas precursors and production equipment to Iraq. [See "What Iraq Admitted About its Chemical Weapons Program": http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif]

According to the "Washington Post", the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq used to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort. [ Bob Woodward, "CIA Aiding Iraq in Gulf War; Target Data From U.S. Satellites Supplied for Nearly 2 Years," Washington Post, 15 December 1986.]

In May 2003, an extended list of international companies involvements in Iraq was provided by The Independent (UK). [Link: The Independent, Wednesday, 18 December, 2002: http://foi.missouri.edu/terrorbkgd/uscorpsiniraq.html] Official Howard Teicher and Radley Gayle, stated that Bell helicopters that were given to Iraq by U.S. later were used to spray chemical weapons. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20010513085039/http://www.wlv.ac.uk/shass/cv/phythian.html Phythian] , p. 38. Phythian cites former NSC official Howard Teicher and Radley Gayle, Twin Pillars to Desert Storm: America's Flawed Vision in the Middle East from Nixon to Bush, (New York: William Morrow, 1993), p. 275.]

Iraq's chemical weapons program was mainly assisted by German companies such as Karl Kolb, which built a chemical weapons facility disguised as a pesticide plant. Iraq’s foreign contractors, including Karl Kolb with Massar for reinforcement, built five large research laboratories, an administrative building, eight large underground bunkers for the storage of chemical munitions, and the first production buildings. 150 tons of mustard were produced in 1983. About 60 tons of Tabun were produced in 1984. Pilot-scale production of Sarin began in 1984. [Central Intelligence Agency report: https://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/chap5.html] Germany also supplied reactors, heat exchangers, condensors and vessels. France, Austria, Canada, and Spain provided similar equipment. [Link: http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif]

The Al Haddad trading company of Tennessee delivered 60 tons of DMMP, a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in so-called "Gulf War Syndrome". The Al Haddad trading company appears to have been an Iraqi front company. The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. Al-Haddad was charged with conspiring to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon. In 1984, U.S. Customs at New York's Kennedy Airport stop an order addressed to the Iraqi State Enterprise for Pesticide Production for 74 drums of potassium fluoride, a chemical used in the production of Sarin. The order was places by Al-Haddad Enterprises Incorporates, owned by an individual named Sahib al-Haddad. [http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iraq/Chemical/3883_3895.html]

The U.S. firm Alcolac International supplied one mustard-gas precursor, thiodiglycol, to both Iraq and Iran in violation of U.S. export laws for which it was forced to pay a fine in 1989. Overall between 300-400 tons were sent to Iraq. [http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iraq/Chemical/3883_3895.html] [http://www.iraqwatch.org/search/view-record.asp?sc=suppliers&id=269] [http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/iran/iran-chemical-1998.html] [http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif]

Biological

Iraq did not use biological weapons in the war, but built up its capability during that time.

On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning "disease producing"), toxigenic (meaning "poisonous") and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce." It added: "These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction." [Link: http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm] The report then detailed 70 shipments (including Anthrax Bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding that "these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program." [See:http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/flow/iraq/seed.htm]

A report by Berlin's die tageszeitung in 2002 reported that Iraq's 11,000-page report to the UN Security Council listed 150 foreign companies that supported Saddam Hussein's WMD program. Twenty-four U.S. firms were involved in exporting arms and materials to Baghdad [Link: [http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php Arming Iraq: A Chronology of U.S. Involvement on Iran Chamber Society] ]
Donald Riegle, Chairman of the Senate committee that made the report, said, "UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs." He added, "the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record."Fact|date=December 2007

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent Iraq 14 agents "with biological warfare significance," including West Nile virus, according to Riegle's investigators. [Saint Petersburg Times report: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/16/Perspective/How_Iraq_built_its_we.shtml]

Financial support

Iraq's main financial backers were the oil-rich Persian Gulf states, most notably Saudi Arabia ($30.9 billion), Kuwait ($8.2 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($8 billion). [Iraq debt: non-Paris Club creditors: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/ch2_anxd_img06.jpg]

The Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an Atlanta branch of Italy's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying largely on U.S. taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq—some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.

Aside from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC's Ted Koppel, the Iraq-gate story never picked up much steam, even though the U.S. Congress became involved with the scandal. [Federation of American Scientists report: http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920519l.htm] This scandal is covered in Alan Friedman's book "The Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq."

Beginning in September 1989, the "Financial Times" laid out the first charges that BNL, relying heavily on U.S. government-guaranteed loans, was funding Iraqi chemical and nuclear weapons work. For the next two and a half years, the Financial Times provided the only continuous newspaper reportage (over 300 articles) on the subject. Among the companies shipping militarily useful technology to Iraq under the eye of the U.S. government, according to the Financial Times, were Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix, and Matrix Churchill, through its Ohio branch [Report by Colombia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp]

In all, Iraq received $35 billion in loans from the West and between $30 and $40 billion from the Gulf States during the 1980s. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/isg-final-report_vol1_rfp-anx-d.htm]

References