/The doubling of Iraq’s possessions in Iranian soil, the result of the continuation of the war after Khorramshahr/
Hossein Bastani
After the liberation of Khorramshahr on June 4, 1361, one of the main arguments of the supporters of the continuation of the war was that what will happen to the parts of Iran that are still occupied by Iraq? The most important of these areas were Shalamcheh and Talaiyeh in Khuzestan, Fakkah on the border of Khuzestan and Ilam, and Naftshahr in Ilam province. It was with arguments of this kind that the war continued, and of course, instead of liberating the occupied areas of Iraq, it focused on repeated attempts to capture Basra, which failed one after another.
Six years later, the Islamic Republic accepted the ceasefire on July 27, 1367 (and the ceasefire was established on August 29), when on the one hand the number of Iranians killed in the war had reached 5 times the time of the liberation of Khorramshahr, and on the other hand, the Iraqi occupation In Iran, it had increased by almost 2 times. Among them, Shalamcheh, Talaiyeh, Fakkah, and Naftshahr were still under the control of Iraq.
For a better understanding of such a situation, it will be useful to reread the letter of Ali Akbar Velayati to the Secretary General of the United Nations on March 15, 1367, in which the area of Iraqi possessions in Iran after the liberation of Khorramshahr and during the ceasefire is compared. The letter states that after the liberation of Khorramshahr – and then the announcement of the withdrawal of Iraqis from other parts of their territories – Iraq still occupied about 1,400 square kilometers of Iranian territory. The Minister of Foreign Affairs adds that at the time of writing, that is, 5 and a half months after the establishment of the ceasefire, 2,663 square kilometers of Iranian territory are still occupied by Iraq.
The occupations of Iraqis in Iran remain under occupation for two years after the ceasefire, and Iran’s efforts to take them back have reached a complete deadlock. In fact, the withdrawal of these areas from occupation will finally take place after the occupation of Kuwait by Iraq. That is, when Saddam Hussein’s army is faced with the unexpected reaction of the world powers and its former allies, and on the eve of a new war, it needs to secure its eastern borders with Iran.
Obviously, 12 days after the occupation of Kuwait by the Iraqis, Saddam Hussein, in a letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani, announced his intention to withdraw from the occupied lands, and a few days later, the Iraqi forces withdrew from their possessions in Iran. It is not known whether Saddam Hussein would have retreated from them if he was not going to clash with the American army and his European and Arab allies over Kuwait.
If the war ended after the liberation of Khorramshahr, of course, Iran would have to make new efforts to force Iraq to withdraw from the rest of its possessions, which would certainly not be easy. But after its greatest military victory over Iraq, it had the upper hand in the war, Iran’s soldiers and people were in the best morale, and Iran’s air force was still superior to Iraq’s (unlike at the end of the war, which had 10 equipped aircraft for every 10). Iraqi, Iran had 1 combat aircraft ready to fly).
After the liberation of Khorramshahr, if the then leader of the Islamic Republic was supposed to give a message on the occasion of accepting the ceasefire with the Iraqis, it would have been about the heavy defeat of Iraq and the great victory of Iran, and not to be compared to drinking a cup of poison.
@Bayanmedianetwork
This post is written by mkarimia46