How the Iran-Iraq War Commenced

The Iran-Iraq conflict erupted on September 22, 1980, when Ruhollah Khomeini1, the regime’s first supreme leader, declared war on the Iranian people. Each year, the regime distorts this event as a triumph for the Iranian people, but in truth, it was a victory for the regime’s own survival.

The ‘Holy Defense’

This oppressive regime characterizes the eight-year-long battle as the ‘Holy Defense.’ But one must question the origins of such a term and whether history offers any parallels.

Khomeini’s Interference

Khomeini’s apparent meddling in Iraqi affairs set the stage for one of the lengthiest wars of the twentieth century. Six months before the war’s outbreak, Kayhan ran a bold headline: “Imam Khomeini calls on the Iraqi army to rise up.”

Keyhan daily of April 19, 1980 - “Imam [Khomeini] invited the Iraqi army to revolt.”
Keyhan daily of April 19, 1980 – “Imam [Khomeini] invited the Iraqi army to revolt.”

Khomeini’s Conquest Aims

Apart from fulfilling Khomeini’s expansionist goals, the conflict served as a pretext to confront and eliminate political groups and organizations within Iran. Javad Mansouri, the first commander of the Revolutionary Guards, noted: “If there hadn’t been a war, I think the Islamic Revolution would have been defeated. [The war gave us] strength, experience. Many of us achieved great outcomes during the war. It allowed us to suppress internal counterrevolutionaries and groups.”

The Liberation of Khorramshahr

The liberation of Khorramshahr marked a turning point in the Iran-Iraq conflict, signifying the retreat of Iraq’s invading forces from Iranian territory. Paradoxically, this could have been an opportune moment for Khomeini to end the conflict if he had regarded it as a “crisis” rather than a “blessing.” However, Khomeini labeled the war as a “gift” and a “blessing.”

Khomeini’s Rejection of Peace

Khomeini viewed peace as the “burial of Islam,” despite observers’ arguments that peace would have entailed the burial of his rule. Consequently, he continued the fight even after Khorramshahr’s liberation, asserting, “This battle was a great blessing for you because it revealed your true selves. It was uncertain how we would fare and what our condition would be if the war had not occurred.”

Khomeini’s Ideological War

Khomeini framed his campaign as a battle between Islam and unbelief, with the objective of ‘conquering Quds through Karbala,’ referencing the Crusades. This rhetoric did not suffice. His warmongers initiated the conflict with the slogan “war to victory,” which later morphed into “war to eliminate world intrigue.” Unfortunately, the reality is that all Middle East conflicts are extensions of the regime’s “export of revolution” and “holy defense,” resulting in millions of dollars lost and untold suffering across the region.

MEK’s Role in the War

In 1980, as Iraqi forces crossed into Iran, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) condemned the occupation of Iranian territory and expressed readiness to defend the homeland and the innocent people of western Iran. However, from the war’s early weeks, IRGC forces harassed and mistreated MEK-supported forces, even arresting many of their members.

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Khomeini’s Background

When Khomeini became the Supreme Leader of Iran after the revolution in 1979, he was extremely popular. The people of Iran were fed up with the Shah’s dictatorship, and Khomeini made many promises about economic welfare and social and political justice and freedoms. These promises were false, and the people weren’t aware of Khomeini’s true nature.

Khomeini said: “I may have said one thing yesterday and another today and another tomorrow. It does not make sense for me to say that because I said something yesterday, I have to stick to it.” (Sahifa Noor, vol. 18, p. 178- December 11, 1983)

It was the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) that first took a stand against the advancing new religious dictatorship of the Khomeini and the regime, revealing the dark reality of their rule to the Iranian people. The MEK began a campaign of awareness that exposed Khomeini. The state-run free distribution daily news publication the Islamic Republic reached about 18,000 people during this time, while after just two years, the MEK’s official publication, Mojahed, which was secretly published, circulated to more than six hundred thousand people daily.

Khomeini desperately needed a way to maintain his newfound power and justify the oppression of the people in response to their legitimate demands.

“At this time that we are engaged at war, calmness must be maintained. If some people make speeches across the country, and their speeches cause tension, whoever he is, in whatever position, I will put him in his place,” Khomeini said.

The former IRGC Chief Commander, and regime’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani, admitted in an interview with the state-tv in 2014: “We had a movement inside the country, under the guise of demonstration of unemployed people with a high school diploma, demonstration of Women against (forced) hijab, a flow of guns into Iran,.. this trend would have led to something before the war if we didn’t prevent them.”

This shows that after the 1979 revolution, with the campaign of the MEK and peaceful demonstrations of different sectors of Iranian society, the regime would have been overthrown. Despite all the loss and suffering that the Iranian people endured, Khomeini deemed this to be worth it in order to keep the power of the regime intact.

Khomeini’s fatwa, which led to 1988 massacre in Iran

In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed tens of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran. This massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by the regime’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

There are strong indications that Khomeini’s fatwa, which led to the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, was issued on July 26, 1988.

The Iranian regime has never acknowledged these executions, or provided any information as to how many prisoners were killed.

The majority of those executed were either serving prison sentences for their political activities or had already finished their sentences but were still kept in prison.

Some of them had previously been imprisoned and released, but were again arrested and executed during the massacre.

The wave of massacre of political prisoners began in late July and continued unabated for several months.

By the time it ended in the autumn of 1988, some 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), were slaughtere