Iran and Iraq: a short look at a long history

F. Brinley Bruton Reporter • E-mail

LONDON - The complex relationship between Iran and Iraq stands at the heart of two of the thorniest issues confronting President Barack Obama during his first few months in office. 

While the new administration has signaled its interest in engaging elements of Iran's government, it is dealing with a regime that was emboldened by the United States’ post-invasion setbacks in Iraq and possibly pursuing nuclear weapons. Complicating matters is Tehran's bellicose stance toward Israel and its support of Islamist militant factions elsewhere in the Middle East, including in Iraq, Lebanon and even the  Palestinian territories.

For its part, Iraq is still grappling with militants while at the same time trying to form a stable government and balance the competing interests of Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and others. It also faces the possibility of an upsurge in violence as thousands of American troops leave the country in the coming months and years, in line with the 2008 security agreement between the United States and Iraq.

Iran and Iraq also have a unique relationship with each other. The neighbors hold regular security meetings, underlining their ongoing ties. Meanwhile, the Pentagon accuses Iran of supplying militias in Iraq with improvised explosive devices — particularly the especially lethal armor-piercing variety.

Given that Iran is predominantly Shiite and now ruled by a theocratic government, in contrast to Iraq where Sunnis, until the U.S. invasion, long ruled the Shiite majority, the schism between the major branches of Islam has played a major role in relations between the countries. This split dates back to disputes over the succession to the Prophet Mohammed. For the Shiites, Mohammed's son-in-law Ali was the rightful heir to the Prophet, while the Sunnis followed his father-in-law Abu Bakr, who became the first Caliph.

And while ethnically and linguistically distinct — Iran’s population is predominantly Persian and Farsi-speaking, while Iraq’s is dominated by Arabic-speaking Arabs — the two share an intertwining history and a border spanning about 1,000 miles.

Different but next door
The history of Iran, formerly known as Persia, spans many centuries. Its rulers battled the ancient Greeks and its series of empires have stretched as far as western and central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains.

In contrast, Iraq as part of the larger Arab "nation" has been a recognized and distinct country for a much shorter time. Even so, the area known for centuries in Europe as Mesopotamia has in the region been referred to as al-‘Iraq — the shore of a great river and the grazing land around it — since about the eighth century.

Sunni vs. Shiite
It has been Iraq’s fate to be caught in the middle between Persia and subsequent competing powers, according to Middle East expert Dr. Jubin Goodarzi, the author of the "Syria and Iran: Diplomatic Alliance and Power Politics in the Middle East."

“Both during the Romans and the Ottomans, Iraq became a battleground of empires," he says.

An important turning point for both came in 1501 when Shiite Islam became the state religion in Persia (Shiite Islam is distinct from the religion’s other major branch, Sunni Islam). Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, two of Shiite Islam’s most important centers, for which Iran pays for much of the upkeep, are still visited by thousands of Iranian pilgrims and clerics every year, as well as local Iraqi Shiites.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Iraq became part of the Sunni Ottoman Empire, which stood in contrast to Persia’s Shiite one. Ottoman control over Iraq waxed and waned over the centuries but was finally relinquished in the years following the end of World War I in 1918 and the empire’s subsequent dismantlement. While Iraq was considered a backwater province during Ottoman times, Sunnis were elevated as the local ruling class. The British followed suit.

Hussein Malla / AP A day before the 10th day of Ashoura, Shiite Muslims offer afternoon prayers at the Imam Hussein holy shrine in Karbala, Iraq, on March 1, 2004.

The victorious European powers carved up Ottoman holdings, with the British occupying the cities of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra in Iraq. In 1920, the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom the mandate for Iraq, and borders were drawn between the countries with little consideration to the communities being split up by them. Subsequent revolts were suppressed and Prince Faisal bin Husain al-Hashemi was placed on the throne within two years.

In 1932, the League of Nations granted Iraq its independence, although Britain left Iraq’s Sunnis very much in charge.

Path to revolution
During World War I, Persia was the scene of intense fighting despite having declared its neutrality, and the decades between the wars were also defined by great political tumult. By 1941, by which time it had changed its name to Iran, the country had sided with the Axis powers, leading to a brief Anglo-Russian occupation of the country at the end of the war.

Its great size, natural resources and, especially, its strategic position on the Caspian Sea ensured that Iran would be a battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States early on in the Cold War.

AP Iranian army troops and tanks stand in front of Central Police headquarters after the attempted coup against Premier Mohammad Mossadeq in Tehran on Aug. 16, 1953.

In 1950, nationalist Mohammad Mossadeq became prime minister of Iran, which led to tension with pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who fled the country to Iraq in 1953. Later that same year, the intelligence services of Britain and the United States, which feared that Tehran might turn toward Moscow during that crucial stage of the Cold War, helped engineer a coup that deposed Mossadeq and reinstalled the shah.

While there was some tension between Iran and Iraq in the 1940s and 1950s, the countries were mostly governed by conservative, pro-Western regimes.

That changed dramatically in 1958 when a military coup deposed Iraq’s monarchy and established a republic. The secular Sunni government became a center of Arab nationalism, and in the following years struggled to grapple with and suppress its Kurdish minority and largely disenfranchised Shiite majority. Iran maintained ties to both restive groups during this time.

In neighboring Iran, the shah embarked on a modernizing and westernizing campaign in 1963, but in the process became increasingly dependent on the country’s brutal secret police. The shah’s policies alienated the clergy, and later the middle classes and the poor, which led to strikes, riots and mass demonstrations.

Slide show   Perilous path A click-through history of modern Iran and its love-hate relationship with the United States more photos

It was the shah’s repression of populist democratic movements that led to widespread resentment not only against the regime but also his backers, namely the Americans.

Meanwhile, relations between the two countries soured as Iran lent support to the Kurds in the north of Iraq. Iraq, in turn, aided Iranian Kurds.

During this time the conservative Shiite clergyman Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhhollah Musavi Khomeini, a long-time opponent of the shah, was sent into exile for about 14 years. Khomeini spent most of this time in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf, which posed a challenge to Iraq's government given the problems it was having with its own Shiite population. Ultimately, then-Vice President Saddam Hussein forced Khomeini to leave the country in 1978.

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