Iran–Iraq relations

Iran-Iraq relations have been turbulent due to both participants having fought the worst war in modern history, within the region. Iran and Iraq fought an eight year war in the 1980s. However, bilateral relations have improved since the fall of Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to visit Iraq since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran has an embassy in Baghdad and 3 General Consulates in (Basra, Arbil and Karbala). Iraq also has an embassy in Tehran.

Antiquity

argon the Great

Sargon of Akkad was an Akkadian king famous for his conquest of Sumer. Sargon's vast empire is known to have extended from Elam to the Mediterranean sea, including Mesopotamia, parts of modern-day Iran and Syria, and possibly parts of Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula.

Nebuchadrezzar the Great and Median Treaty

In the Golden age of Babylon, Nabopolassar was intent on conquering from the pharaoh Necho II (who was still hoping to restore Assyrian power) the western provinces of Syria, and to this end dispatched his son with a powerful army westward. In the ensuing Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, the Egyptian army was defeated and driven back, and Syria and Phoenicia were brought under the sway of Babylon. Nabopolassar died in August of that year, and Nebuchadrezzar II returned home to Babylon to ascend to the throne.

After the defeat of the Cimmerians and Scythians, all of Nebuchadrezzar's expeditions were directed westwards, although a powerful neighbour lay to the North; the cause of this was that a wise political marriage with Amytis of Media, the daughter of the Median king, had ensured a lasting peace between the two empires.

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great, was one of history's great leaders, ruled Mesopotamia with a firm hand, but he was also well attuned to the needs of his subjects. Upon assuming power, he immediately replaced the savagery of the Assyrians with a respect for the customs and the institutions of his new subjects. He appointed competent provincial governors (the predecessors of the Persian satraps), and he required from his subjects only tribute and obedience. Following Cyrus's death, a brief period of Babylonian unrest ensued that climaxed in 522 B.C. with a general rebellion of Iranian colonies.

Darius the Great

Between 520 and 485 B.C., the efficient and innovative Iranian leader, Darius the Great, reimposed political stability in Babylon and ushered in a period of great economic prosperity. His greatest achievements were in road building, which significantly improved communication among the provinces, and in organizing an efficient bureaucracy. Darius's death in 485 B.C. was followed by a period of decay that led to a major Babylonian rebellion in 482 B.C. The Iranians violently quelled the uprising, and the repression that followed severely damaged Babylon's economic infrastructure.

Persian Empire

The first Iranian kings to rule Iraq followed Mesopotamian land-management practices conscientiously. Between 485 B.C. and the conquest by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., however, very little in Babylon was repaired and few of its once-great cities remained intact. Trade also was greatly reduced during this period. The established trade route from Sardis to Susa did not traverse Babylonia, and the Iranian rulers, themselves much closer to the Orient, were able to monopolize trade from India and other eastern points. As a result, Babylonia and Assyria, which together formed the ninth satrapy of the Persian Empire, became economically isolated and impoverished. Their poverty was exacerbated by the extremely high taxes levied on them: they owed the Iranian crown 1,000 talents of silver a year, in addition to having to meet the extortionate demands of the local administrators, and they were responsible for feeding the Iranian court for four months every year.

Iranian rule lasted for more than 200 years, from 551 B.C. to 331 B.C. During this time, large numbers of Iranians were added to Mesopotamia's ethnically diverse population. The flow of Iranians into Iraq, which began during the rein of the Achaemenids, initiated an important demographic trend that would continue intermittently throughout much of Iraqi history. Another important effect of Iranian rule was the disappearance of the Mesopotamian languages and the widespread use of Aramaic, the official language of the empire.

Hellenistic Mesopotamia

By the fourth century B.C., nearly all of Babylon opposed the Achaemenids. Thus, when the Iranian forces stationed in Babylon surrendered to Alexander the Great of Macedon in 331 B.C. all of Babylonia hailed him as a liberator. Alexander quickly won Babylonian favor when, unlike the Achaemenids, he displayed respect for such Babylonian traditions as the worship of their chief god, Marduk. Alexander also proposed ambitious schemes for Babylon. He planned to establish one of the two seats of his empire there and to make the Euphrates navigable all the way to the Persian Gulf, where he planned to build a great port. Alexander's grandiose plans, however, never came to fruition. Returning from an expedition to the Indus River, he died in Babylon; most probably from malaria contracted there in 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-two. In the politically chaotic period after Alexander's death, his generals fought for and divided up his empire. Many of the battles among the Greek generals were fought on Babylonian soil. In the latter half of the Greek period, Greek military campaigns were focused on conquering Phoenician ports and Babylonia was thus removed from the sphere of action. The city of Babylon lost its preeminence as the center of the civilized world when political and economic activity shifted to the Mediterranean, where it was destined to remain for many centuries.

Although Alexander's major plans for Mesopotamia were unfulfilled, and his generals did little that was positive for Mesopotamia, the effects of the Greek occupation were noteworthy. Alexander and his successors built scores of cities in the Near East that were modeled on the Greek city-states. One of the most important was Seleucia on the Tigris river. The Hellenization of the area included the introduction of Western deities, Western art forms, and Western thought. Business revived in Mesopotamia because one of the Greek trade routes ran through the new cities. Mesopotamia exported barley, wheat, dates, wool, and bitumen; the city of Seleucia exported spices, gold, precious stones, and ivory. Cultural interchange between Greek and Mesopotamian scholars was responsible for the saving of many Mesopotamian scientific, especially astronomical, texts.

The Parthians

In 126 B.C., the Parthians (or Arsacids), an intelligent, nomadic people who had migrated from the steppes of Turkestan to northeastern Iran, captured the Tigris-Euphrates river valley. Having previously conquered Iran, the Parthians were able to control all trade between the East and the Greco-Roman world. For the most part, they chose to retain existing social institutions and to live in cities that already existed. Mesopotamia was immeasurably enriched by this, the mildest of all foreign occupations of the region. The population of Mesopotamia was enormously enlarged, chiefly by Arabs, Iranians, and Aramaeans. With the exception of the Roman occupation under Trajan (A.D. 98- 117) and Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211), the Arsacids ruled until a new force of native Iranian rulers, the Sassanids, conquered the region in A.D. 227.

assanid occupation

Little information is available on the Sassanid occupation, which lasted until A.D. 636. The north was devastated by battles fought between Romans and Sassanids. For the most part, the Sassanids appear to have neglected Mesopotamia. By the time the enfeebled Sassanid Empire fell to Muslim Arab warriors, Mesopotamia was in ruins, and Sumero-Akkadian civilization was entirely extinguished. Sassanid neglect of the canals and irrigation ditches vital for agriculture had allowed the rivers to flood, and parts of the land had become sterile. Nevertheless, Mesopotamian culture passed on many traditions to the West. The basic principles of mathematics and astronomy, the coronation of kings, and such symbols as the tree of life, the Maltese cross, and the crescent are part of Mesopotamia's legacy.

The Abbasid Empire

The Abbasid Empire was the second of the two great Muslim caliphates of the Arab Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad (Iraq). The Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads. Abu al-'Abbas' successor, al-Mansur, moved their capital from Damascus to the new city of Baghdad and welcomed non-Arab Muslims to their court. While this helped integrate Arab and Persian cultures, it alienated many of their Arab supporters, particularly the Khorasanian Arabs who had supported them in their battles against the Umayyads.

Modern history

1980s (Iran–Iraq War)

The war broke out in September 1980. Eight years of fighting left more than 1 million people dead and caused huge disasters for both sides. The United Nations issued Resolution 598 in July 1987, demanding an unconditional ceasefire between the two nations. Iraq and Iran later accepted the resolution and the war ended in August 1988.

1990s (Gulf war)

On August 17th 1990, days after Saddam invaded Kuwait, Saddam told Iran he would withdraw from occupied Iranian territory and formally settled the 1980–88 war. The two countries then restored diplomatic relations in October 1990.

2000s (Invasion of Iraq)

Since 2000, Iran-Iraq relations visibly improved. After the US-led war on Iraq started in 2003, Tehran strongly opposed the invasion, calling for a key role of the UN in Iraq's reconstruction. Iran then offered assistance to Iraq's post-war reconstruction and bilateral relations began to improve. In May 2005, a transitional government led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the pro-Iran Islamist Dawa party was established in Iraq. In mid May, Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi visited Iraq and Jaafari paid a visit to Iran in July. In November, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani visited Iran, becoming the first Iraqi head of state to visit Iran in almost four decades.

Iran-Iraq relations have been heating up since 2006 by the exchange of high level visits: Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki makes frequent visits, along with Jalal Talabani visiting numerous times, to help boost bilateral cooperation in all fields.

ee also

*Iraqis in Iran
*Iran-Arab relations

External links

*Embassy of the Republic of Iraq - Tehran http://www.iraqembassy.ir/
* [http://historymedren.about.com/library/text/bltxtiraq3.htm Iraq: Historical Setting, Iranian and Greek Intrusions]