Ali Sanaei’s Personal Blog

Greetings for the birthday of Imam Hassan (AS)

September 22nd 1980 Iraq invaded Iran from land and air and officially started the Iran-Iraq War which ended at 1988, making it to be considered the longest conventional and one of most destructive wars of the 20th century, with likely 1.5 million casualties and total cost of $1.2 billion for both sides.

Saddam Hussein claimed as the reason for his attack on Iran a territorial dispute over Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that empties into the Persian Gulf and forms the boundry between Iran and Iraq. In 1975 a partial control of the waterway was signed to Iran when Iraq was weaker in military point of view and Iran was somehow stable in its military system. But after the Iranian revolution and the resultant of weakening of Iran’s military, Iraq seized the opportunity to reclaim the Shatt al-Arab. In fact, Iraq also hoped to seize the south-west Iranian province of Khuzestan- an area known for its extensive oil fields.

The Iraqi offensive was initially successful, capturing the port city of Khorramshahr by the end of 1980. Iranian resistance proved strong, however, and Iraqi troops had withdrawn from the occupied portions of Iran by early 1982. This was a huge event and a true symbol of victory, as Iran was not only facing Iraq but a world of enemies who were continuously feeding and supporting Iraq (USA, USSR, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Czech, Denmark, Canada, Brazil, Saudi, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, etc and etc).

After all, the war left the borders unchanged. Two years later, as war with the western powers loomed, Saddam recognised Iranian rights over the eastern half of the Shatt al-Arab, a reversion to the status quo ante bellum that he had repudiated a decade earlier.

History Fast Forward:

1975: Settlement on frontiers between Iran and Iraq that involved increased territory for Iran compared to the borders prior to 1971.
1980 September 22: Iraq invades Iran, and has early victories.
1982: Iraq is driven out of Iran.
1983 -1985: Iraq battered, but not beaten.
1985 May 26: Iraq breaks cease fire again. Jordan’s Hussein & Egypt’s Mubarak visit Saddam to show their support.
1988 March 16: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Kurds supporting Iran in Halabja, killing 4,000.
1988 April 18: US blows up 2 Iranian oil rigs, destroys an Iranian frigate and immobilises another.
1988 July 03: the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air’s Airbus A300B2-203, Flight 655 with the loss of all 290 passengers and crew.
1988 July 20: Iran accepts a UN resolution 598 to cease fighting (Iraq accepted the resolution about a year before Iran).
1988 August 20: Formal ceasefire in Iraq-Iran war. UN monitoring force established for Iran-Iraq border. Confirmation by UN that Iraq did use mustard gas against Iranian civilians.

Greetings for the commencement of the holy month of Ramadan

Hey Bush; it’s APEC, not OPEC & it’s AutraLia, not Austria!

Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House!

He’d only reached the third sentence of this Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe: “Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit,” Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Oops… That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Bush quickly corrected himself. “APEC summit,” he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year; which is an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the US are OPEC members!!

The president’s next goof went uncorrected (by him anyway). Talking about Howard’s visit to Iraq last year to thank his country’s soldiers serving there, Bush called them “Austrian troops.” That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying “Austrian,” the official text released by the White House switched it to “Australian.”

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way. He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to centre stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theatre.

The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people out of the theatre’s balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below — which is most visible on camera.

Here is the news by Times.

A week ago when Bush arrived in Sydney I was watching Australia’s channel ten news. When Bush was getting off the plane the reporter stated: “Here comes the world’s most powerful man”, after hearing this; I just suddenly laughed.