Iran-Iraq war kicks off 25 years ago today
I notice that today marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war which lasted 6 years and killed 400,000 people. The BBC reported at the time that “the rise in hostilities comes after Iraq tore up a 1975 border agreement with Iran over sovereignty of the Shatt al-Arab waterway…Western diplomats believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is seeking to take advantage of the post-revolution turmoil in Iran to seize control of the waterway and other territory handed over to Tehran as part of the 1975 agreement.”
The reason I’m blogging about this is because I met Mohammed last weekend – the guy from Iran that my wife mentors as part of the timebank scheme, and it really got me thinking. We were talking about how his life has changed and he said he remembered, as a young boy, living in a prosperous Iran and mixing with lots of Western foreigners (he lived in the richer southern oil region). Then he witnessed the Islamic revolution in Iran and went on to fight in the Iran-Iraq war for two years. He fled the country fearing persecution and now lives in the UK, where he struggles to find work despite being a qualified nurse. What an extraordinary life he has led. I told him to write a book.
