<Li> Iraqi insurgency (2011--13) </Li> <Li> Iraqi Civil War (2014--present) </Li> <P> The Iran--Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq, beginning on 22 September 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, and ending on 20 August 1988, when Iran accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire . Iraq wanted to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state, and was worried that the 1979 Iranian Revolution would lead Iraq's Shi'ite majority to rebel against the Ba'athist government . The war also followed a long history of border disputes, and Iraq planned to annex the oil - rich Khuzestan Province and the east bank of the Shatt al - Arab (Arvand Rud). </P> <P> Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, it made limited progress and was quickly repelled; Iran regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982 . For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive until near the end of the war . There were a number of proxy forces--most notably the People's Mujahedin of Iran siding with Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdish militias of the KDP and PUK siding with Iran . The United States, Soviet Union, France, and most Arab countries provided support for Iraq, while Iran was largely isolated . After eight years, war - weariness, economic problems, decreased morale, repeated Iranian military failures, recent Iraqi successes, Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction and lack of international sympathy, and increased U.S.--Iran military tension all led to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations . </P>

Who was involved in the iran iraq war