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00:01Spring 1988, Iranian troops have been trying to capture Iraq's second city Basra for six years.
00:20Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khomeini's right-hand man, was desperate to break the deadlock.
00:31He now decided to withdraw troops from the Basra front and attack in the mountainous region of Kurdistan in northern
00:39Iraq.
00:43It was a strategy he tried before, but this time he'd commit half the Iranian army and force his way
00:51in.
00:52If we were to defend our troops, we would be able to defend our troops from the Basra.
00:59If we were to defend our troops, we would be able to defend our troops.
01:06Supporting the Iranian attack were the Peshmerga.
01:12Iraqi Kurds who had been fighting for independence against Saddam.
01:18The advance was rapid.
01:40They soon took the important Kurdish city of Halabja, abandoned by the retreating Iraqi army.
01:56Saddam was in trouble.
01:58Saddam was in trouble.
02:25And the
02:45In Baghdad, Saddam's generals delivered the bad news that his northern front was collapsing.
02:57Reinforcements were rushed into the mountains. They were given strict orders not to retreat. They came under intense fire.
03:11When we reached the Slymanya, there was a strange sight, because the mountains were all dark.
03:21You didn't see the planes going on.
03:34I could see that in the eyes of the young people this fear.
03:40That they won't be able to die, but they won't return.
03:43Some of the young people started to read the Quran
03:48or watch them and send them to some of them.
03:52We were able to take care of the Iranian attacks.
03:56We lost many people.
04:03The Iraqi counter-attack was wiped out.
04:07Saddam, never a man to let failure go unpunished,
04:11executed several of the commanding officers.
04:14But this rule by fear did not always help.
04:19The local government, the local government,
04:21didn't tell the local government
04:23that the Iranians came,
04:28because they were afraid of Saddam Hussein.
04:30They were afraid of any other.
04:36In a fresh attempt to halt the Iranian momentum,
04:40Saddam launched a massive bombardment of Halabja.
05:02The attacks were very too few causes.
05:05Everyone is disabilities.
05:06...the the Muslim Navy.
05:09...The political force did not allow them to control them.
05:11There would only be questions on thewal.
05:13...
05:13If you don't have any weapons, if you don't have any weapons,
05:15then you'll have to lose your weapons.
05:21Saddam now made the momentous decision to strike Halabja with chemical weapons,
05:28a strategy he'd used before so effectively against the Iranian army.
05:35He boasted to his vice president of his reasons for attacking civilians in this way.
05:42I don't know if you know this, comrade,
05:44but chemical weapons attacks are not used unless I personally give the orders.
05:49They will prevent people eating and drinking the local water,
05:52and they won't be able to sleep in their beds.
05:55They will force people to leave their homes and make them uninhabitable.
06:07This would be his ultimate punishment to the Kurds for their disloyalty in supporting Iran.
06:17The other end of this year in the next session is to feed the local and the fighters,
06:22and the people of the people who had a gunman,
06:28and at the same time, they had been running the way.
06:30They were just running the way, they did not run the way, they did not run the way.
06:35They looked at me everywhere.
06:37They looked at me everywhere and they looked at me everywhere.
06:41During my life at the time of time, I was a man who was able to drive a car into
06:46the vehicle.
06:48He was able to drive a car, and I was able to find out what happened.
06:56I was very busy. I was able to get my money.
07:01He didn't even have money.
07:20Survivors escaped their cellars and emerged to discover scenes of appalling devastation.
07:32They said, about their life was hotter than a year of.
07:37They went to the restaurant and asked them to go to a restaurant, and they told them to ride.
07:47And then they asked them to go to the restaurant.
08:13The brutal Iraqi strategy had worked.
08:38Iranian reinforcements moved into the city
08:40to replace the fleeing Peshmerga.
08:43They found scenes of unimaginable horror.
09:03There is a laughter that is now passed through.
09:05The tragedy of the city is will in the city and the city
09:05and the city is in the city of Peshmerga.
09:08The story of the city that took place at the city
09:10has been opened in every scene.
09:12There was a sloth, a mansion in the city.
09:19The power of the earth was a very dangerous one.
09:30It was a very dangerous one.
09:32It was a very dangerous one.
09:34It was a very dangerous one.
09:35I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
09:38No, I'm sorry!
09:39Make it easy.
09:52At the beginning, my kids have a hard time doing your makeup.
09:58I felt like I didn't do this, I didn't tell you anything.
10:01there was no need to be a slave.
10:05Now I can see what happened.
10:09They had a big deal with my family.
10:13I was like, why is it this time?
10:18I was like, I don't like that.
10:19I was like, I'm in trouble.
10:23I was like, I don't know what to do.
10:27I was like, I don't know what to do.
10:42The Iranian offensive had been stopped in its tracks.
10:47It was not the breakthrough they had hoped for.
10:55But the regime saw the value in exposing the atrocities of Halabja
10:59and rushed in film crews.
11:09Why would the Iraqis do it to their own people?
11:12They did it to us, Halabja.
11:14But the strange thing is to do it to his own people.
11:18To us it's okay, we are enemies, we are fighting together.
11:20But why to his own people?
11:24Despite denials from the regime in Baghdad,
11:26there was international outrage against Iraq.
11:34In Washington, officials pushed Iraq over its denial.
11:40We had raised it with the Iraqis over the years
11:43and they brushed it aside and either denied its use
11:47or, well, these things happened in wartime.
11:50But this was such a major and blatant use of the chemicals
12:01that we made a major thing of it.
12:06I remember to the point where the Iraqi foreign minister blurted out,
12:11look, if we had nuclear weapons, we would have used them to get rid of that community anyway.
12:19They were a pain.
12:22The US publicly condemned Iraq, but they were so worried that Iran might win the war
12:28that they felt unable to withdraw support
12:32and even suggested that both countries had used chemical weapons.
12:37We call upon Iran and Iraq to desist immediately from any further use of chemical weapons,
12:42which are an offense to civilization and humanity.
12:45I think, you know, that the lack of U.S. and international response
12:51to the chemical attacks at the time
12:58is one of those points of guilt that I think everybody has.
13:06Iran now started to fear that Iraq would be prepared to bombard Iranian cities with chemical weapons.
13:14And they were in no position to deter Saddam.
13:18Iran had, by its own admission, a chemical weapons and even a nuclear weapons program.
13:22Iran, but neither were sufficiently advanced.
13:30So new air raid drills were rehearsed for coping with chemical weapons.
13:35And now fear began to grip the nation.
13:43I think that in this space, I don't want to be able to get rid of it.
14:05I think, the
14:17It gave people to fight against the war.
14:27Rafsanjani, the arch-pragmatist of the revolution, was worried.
14:31After years of sanctions, the country was running out of supplies and equipment.
14:37And the economy was in tatters.
14:44If we want to go into a war, in the country,
14:48we have rain and rain, and the people's lives,
14:53and all the things that were brought to Namiro.
14:55Now, the discussion of the revolution was not.
14:58We have to take a tank,
15:02whatever you think about.
15:05Now we give a amount of money in the Kupenam and a shangal.
15:12Until the end of this, we have to have a lot of money.
15:15People who want to fight with war, they want to do it.
15:21It didn't have any time.
15:24There was a place where there was a place where I was.
15:36Rafsanjani pondered how much longer the country could fight.
15:49By contrast, in Baghdad, Saddam was increasingly confident.
15:55He'd spent the billions he'd borrowed from the Gulf states and the USA carefully.
16:00His warriors had never been better armed.
16:07Now he felt he could take the offensive.
16:11Saddam gathered his most trusted advisors.
16:14They came up with a battle plan that Saddam believed would force Iran to the negotiating
16:18table and end the war.
16:27They would make the Iranians think an attack was coming in the north to recapture Halabja.
16:35In fact, they would attack in the south, at a place called Al-Faul.
16:50Saddam began his strategic deception by openly withdrawing troops from the south.
17:14The deception worked, and the Iranians withdrew units from Al-Faul to reinforce the north.
17:21But at night, the Iraqi troops quietly slipped back south.
17:34Saddam was from Al-Faul'sat in the second part.
17:37Saddam was not the right, and the other Kanèª was to have an opportunity to meet the
17:48army.
18:12Saddam secretly gathered his generals to announce the offensive.
18:17He was well known for his paranoia. Fearing enemy bugs, he passed round the date of the attack on a
18:24piece of paper. It would be in just five days' time.
19:09The speed was vital to success.
19:14Iraq had to take al-Faib before Iran could bring up reinforcements and counterattack.
19:22Saddam personally supervised the battle.
19:33The key areas such as supply lines, command posts, and ammunition depots were hit by a storm of conventional weapons,
19:46as well as 100 tons of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.
19:56Because of the success of the deception plan, Iraqis outnumbered the Iranians by 5 to 1.
20:08The attacks were greatly assisted by the satellite imagery that Iraqi liaison officers had persuaded
20:13the CIA to provide.
20:40The Iraqi armor pushed forward at a ferocious pace.
20:51The CIA was a great deal.
21:02The CIA was a great deal.
21:04The CIA was a great deal.
21:17In a battle that some had predicted would take a week, the Al-Faou peninsula was captured
21:23in just 35 hours.
21:29It was the biggest Iraqi victory since the start of the war.
21:34I remember how the American military army was very happy from what happened,
21:41because he didn't expect to be able to do the activities on this level.
21:50When we were able to do it now, there were activities that were able to do the activities of the
21:56military.
22:03Saddam came in triumph to survey the battlefield.
22:07He had desperately needed to regain the initiative.
22:11Now he has.
22:16On the day after the battle, Saddam flew to Mecca,
22:20making a conspicuous pilgrimage to thank God for his victory.
22:27He was notorious for his lack of piety.
22:32But the Iranian Revolution was changing the Middle East,
22:37and Saddam could see which way the wind was blowing.
22:45The trip also gave him the opportunity to thank King Fahad of Saudi Arabia
22:50for his financial support,
22:53vital for paying for the sophisticated equipment
22:56that had made his victory so easy.
23:00And Saddam was about to receive more good news.
23:07World powers were losing patience with Iran's attacks on tankers
23:11in the international waters of the Gulf.
23:16The U.S. had sent ships to provide protection.
23:24But now the American warship, the USS Samuel B. Roberts,
23:28had struck a mine, and ten sailors were injured.
23:35The U.S. responded by targeting Iranian oil platforms used for operations by the Revolutionary Guard.
23:42General reporters, tall hands, manual battle stations.
24:10General reporters, tall hands, manual battle stations.
24:17American patience was running out.
24:33American patience was running out.
24:36The U.S. had given the world in the US.
24:39The U.S. has ever been in the US.
24:39Now shoot.
24:40You can see there.
24:41219, 14,900 yards.
24:44He was running out.
24:45Bring him down, bring him down, bring him down.
24:47There you go.
24:48That's it.
24:53Check the other platforms.
25:03Within hours, the Americans were responding to a direct attack from Iran's small navy.
25:11This is a warning. Stop an abandon ship. I intend to seek you. Over.
25:25The Iranian vessels were no match for the American firepower.
25:33Three Iranian naval vessels and at least two small boats were sunk or very severely damaged.
25:38We've taken this action to make certain the Iranians have no illusions about the cost of irresponsible behavior.
25:46We aim to deter further Iranian aggression, not provoke it.
25:49They must know that we will protect our ships and if they threaten us, they'll pay a price.
25:58Iran's Supreme Defense Council discussed its next move.
26:03Leaders like Khamenei seemed unconcerned by their setbacks.
26:23But even while Khamenei spoke, Rafsanjani was telling newspaper correspondents that time was running out for Iran.
26:32He seemed to be lobbying to end the war.
26:36But ultimate decisions about war and peace could only be made by the ailing Khamenei.
26:50Like his closest supporters, he remained stubbornly defiant.
26:55The war must go on.
27:07But a new Iraqi assault on the Basra front forced the Iranians to retreat 10 kilometers into their own territory.
27:17Casualties were heavy and Iran itself was under threat.
27:35Then, days later, they were attacked again.
27:39Iraq had built momentum.
28:09Iran's
28:23iraqi forces took back the majnun islands from the 40 000 iranians who had occupied them for
28:29three years thousands were killed wounded and captured
28:38saddam hussein was jubilant declaring today's battle was the last of a long series of difficult
28:44confrontations the final victory is now very close
28:55a few days later iran's position deteriorated further as a result of an unexpected event
29:02the american uss vincennes was escorting tankers in the gulf where tensions were still high
29:12the crew's inexperience was balanced by its enthusiasm
29:20they had just engaged a flotilla of revolutionary guard gunboats threatening international oil tankers
29:26and scattered them
29:30now their radar detected an aircraft classed civilian by its transponder
29:41coming inbound fast
29:43but two minutes later the contact changed to civilian or military
29:57on board the ship there was confusion
30:04the vincennes sent a warning to the approaching aircraft
30:07this is u.s navy warship we are standing by channel one six over
30:17there was no reply
30:19two more warnings were given with no response
30:31captain rogers now ordered his men to fire two missiles
30:35the fire
31:01Oh, shit!
31:05We had a gun, it was a jet on!
31:13They didn't know it yet, but they'd just destroyed an Iranian passenger jet.
31:19290 people had been killed.
31:23Oh my God, what have we done?
31:28There has been a horrible, horrible mistake.
31:33The realization that what they had hit was not an Iranian military aircraft, but it was an airliner.
31:47Three days later, the Americans admitted their mistake and would, in due course, pay compensation.
31:57But years of anti-American propaganda meant that many Iranians couldn't believe it was an accident.
32:10It was easier to think the great Satan had committed murder.
32:15Minimum degree of decency and civilized behavior requires a better explanation for the murder of 290 innocent passengers than the
32:24excuses provided by the American administration.
32:28In Tehran, Rafsanjani addressed parliament.
32:31Minimum degree of decency and civilized behavior and the Islamic government.
32:59Many suspect that as acts of revenge, Iran was later behind the bombing of a vehicle owned by the captain
33:05of the Vincennes.
33:11And more significantly, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.
33:23But at the UN, the Americans now sense that this tragedy could have a silver lining.
33:31I think that that had a psychological impact on the Iranians.
33:35And that psychological impact was, oh my God.
33:44We're okay fighting off this guy in Baghdad.
33:49We got that one under control now after eight years.
33:54We're not going to take on these people.
33:59Just two weeks after the passenger jet was shot down, the UN received a letter from Iran.
34:13I have been requested by the members of the Security Council to inform you that they welcomed the decision announced
34:23by the Iranian government that they are prepared to accept formally resolution 598.
34:33And bring the conflict between Iran and Iraq to a quick end.
34:39The world breathed a sigh of relief.
34:44Resolution 598, accepted by Saddam the previous year, called for a withdrawal to the old borders.
34:54In Iran, a statement by Khomeini was read to the nation on the radio.
35:00The white man has been elected.
35:07The U.S.
35:14The U.S.
35:17The U.S.
35:23I think that's a very strange thing.
35:44All of them would be happy.
35:48They would say that the war would be complete.
35:50They would say that they would not be better.
35:53They would be guilty.
35:57I don't remember what people would say.
36:02The war would be complete.
36:06And if it was, what would it be?
36:13There now began negotiations with UN mediators to agree the terms of the ceasefire.
36:23But Iran refused to sit at the same table as Iraq to maintain their dignity in the negotiations
36:29and demanded Iraq end hostilities.
36:35Saddam's negotiator was Tariq Aziz, his foreign minister.
36:48He feared that the Iranians were buying time to rebuild their army.
36:53He declared that military operations would continue until Iranian intentions were confirmed.
37:03Saddam thrived in a way on conflict.
37:07And I think he felt he really had the Iranians by the throat, so he'd squeeze a little harder.
37:15Cuban cigar in hand, Saddam told his people why he was now rejecting the ceasefire.
37:22We answered, what's the ceasefire if we didn't answer?
37:26What's the ceasefire if we didn't say yes?
37:30What's the way?
37:31The fight.
37:34The fight.
37:35The fight until the war.
37:45Taking a leaf from how Iran had used the Kurds to attack him,
37:49Saddam decided to unleash the radical Iranian opposition group, the MEK.
37:54For the previous two years, he'd been helping arm and train them in Iraq.
38:03He now permitted them to attack Iran.
38:12The Iranians were able to ambush and destroy them.
38:21But the attack by fellow countrymen highlighted the divisions inside Iran.
38:31Khomeini needed to draw his demoralized people closer together.
38:36First, thank you for the government and the Iranians,
38:42who, in these days of war,
38:45with a lot of pressure,
38:47with the strength and the strength of Islam,
38:52gave the good things to do with the good of Iran,
38:55until this war was destroyed.
38:59Yes, sir.
39:00But first, he decided to crush the various opposition groups that still existed inside Iran.
39:08He secretly consulted with advisers and ordered special death commissions.
39:15They'd organized the execution of many thousands of political prisoners.
39:22Some of those killed were as young as 14.
39:27Many had only committed minor offenses, such as distributing leaflets.
39:45Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General was still shuttling between the two sides to break the deadlock.
39:56And in New York, delegations led by the Iranian and Iraqi foreign ministers continue to come and go.
40:19Finally, the Saudis who were bankrolling Iraq were asked to put pressure on Saddam to bring the war to an
40:25end.
40:27The U.S. military officials could take place.
40:43The U.S. military players would be made ο Paranis.
40:47The U.S. military troops have been caused by our Soviet Union,
40:50and the U.S. military citizens would agree with us,
40:55Hey, man, and that the team
41:01Both Iran and Iraq at last sent delegations to the UN to agree the ceasefire
41:14To observe a ceasefire
41:17And to discontinue all military action on land
41:22at sea and in the air
41:25As of all three hundred hours EMT
41:34Still both sides remained adamant that they had not caused the war
41:39But at last around the world people could celebrate
41:49I applaud and encourage the efforts of
41:52Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar in bringing an end to this tragic war
41:58And I send him this message
42:00The hopes of the world are with you
42:07In Iraq, the people expressed their relief
42:10And Saddam bathed in the glory of what he presented as a victory over the Ayatollahs
42:22The mood was very different in Iran
42:25Where compromise was seen as defeat
42:35As the dust settled and both sides began to release their prisoners
42:38Many began to reflect
42:41What had eight years of war been about?
42:52And so there was no such a war
42:53Over the last years of war
42:57In Russian, the women will end up with their death
43:05I always say the war was a stranger
43:08As the response to the war
43:09And the war was a stranger
43:09Hence the war
43:09The war was one stranger
43:09Why they failed to win
43:13The war was a stranger
43:15I can't say that it's a war.
43:21I hope that the young people of our country
43:25do not see another war.
43:31It's the most popular work.
43:35I hope that the other war
43:40in this country,
43:41in this region,
43:42in this region,
43:43we will be able to help us.
43:51When there was a war,
43:54in Iraq and Iran,
43:57everyone was asking himself
43:59what happened to the war?
44:01What happened to the war?
44:03What happened to the war?
44:04The war, the Iraq and Iran,
44:06it was not a war.
44:08We lost a million people
44:09who had already passed out.
44:11For the war in Iraq,
44:11after eight years,
44:13he destroyed people,
44:15and of Iraq,
44:17and of the South of Iraq.
44:19The war was really about
44:35the Iraq war.
44:35really about is, yes, a remarkably simple question without a simple answer. It was the
44:46first round in an existential battle over who is going to control the Middle East on
44:55a level that we somewhat understood, which is why we didn't want Iraq to lose, and we
45:03didn't want Iran to win, but we didn't understand the full import of.
45:12The consequences of the war are still with us today. In Iran, the war empowered the most
45:22radical elements of the revolution.
45:30The war had changed from the war and militarism. Many of the Islamic government
45:42were completely destroyed, and the weapons of the U.S. were discovered by the
45:46enemy like the U.S. were discovered, and they were more powerful and stronger and
45:51the greatest WWE
46:02in June 1989 less than a year after the end of the war
46:06Ayatollah Khomeini died
46:09aged 87
46:13the war had done nothing to dent his popularity
46:17his ambition to export the Islamic revolution and expand Iran's influence
46:21would endure but the government had learned from the conflict and would now
46:28pursue its ends indirectly through a regional network of proxy political
46:33parties terrorist groups and militias like the Iranian leadership Saddam was
46:46empowered by the war it reinforced his belief in rule through strength fear and
46:52conflict his military was now the preeminent power in the Middle East
46:59incredibly he controlled the world's fourth largest army but Saddam was broke
47:08to fund his war with Iran he had taken huge loans mainly from Gulf states and
47:14they wanted their money back and when Kuwait insisted on lowering the price of
47:22global oil slashing his income Saddam responded in the way he knew best
47:34and so a new Middle East war began
47:39that war would open a series of doors that would eventually give Iran the
47:44opportunity to achieve its long-stated aim
47:49the toppling of Saddam and the bringing of Iraq under its shadow
47:54the past few weeks
48:15so
48:23the
48:24You
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