Fadel Al-Azzawi: Iraq was not qualified to go to war with Iran policy

Former Iraqi intelligence director Dr. Fadel Al-Azzawi says – in his fourth testimony for the “Witness to the Age” program – that the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) could have been avoided, because Iraq was not qualified to fight it.

Al-Azzawi, in his ongoing testimony to the “Witness to the Age” program broadcast on the “Al Jazeera 360” platform, focuses on the details of the war that his country fought with Iran, during the rule of the late President Saddam Hussein.

Witness to the era banner (Al Jazeera)

In the same context, he reveals that entering the war was a decision of Saddam, because he believed at the time that Iran’s “military, social, economic, and intellectual balance had been disturbed, after the system of (the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei), which differed from the system of the Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, came to power.” .

Regarding the reason for Saddam's decision to go to war alone, his intelligence director said in his testimony, “Saddam always acts based on his conviction in his personal capabilities, and not based on the capabilities of his army.” It is likely that the liquidation operations that took place in 1979 made officials around Saddam afraid of him.

According to Al-Azzawi, there was international conviction that the Iran-Iraq war could have been avoided, and in this context he reveals that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (1957-1985) Andrei Gromyko told him that “the war could have been avoided.”

He also reveals that Gromyko asked him, “Why did you get involved in the war with Iran? We are a major country. During the 1920s, we entered into a war with Iran that lasted 40 years, and it was on a hill. We told them, through an intermediary, that we would give up the hill to you and stop fighting, but they refused. The stubbornness of the Iranians is known.” “.

Gromyko also told Al-Azzawi – as he mentioned in his testimony – that the major powers decided not to interfere in the war between Iraq and Iran.

Regarding the positions of the Arab countries on the war between Baghdad and Tehran, the guest of the “Witness to the Age” program regrets that Syria and Libya supported Iran during the Iraq war, and says that Algeria stood “between and between,” that is, it did not support one party at the expense of the other.

A number of Iranian soldiers on top of a tank showing their happiness over the victory over Iraqi forces in one of the rounds of the war
A number of Iranian soldiers on top of a tank expressing their happiness over the victory over Iraqi forces in one of the rounds of the war (French)

On the other hand, Al-Azzawi admits that Iraq suffered great losses in its war with Iran, but Saddam, who “never regretted entering the war,” continued in it, because the other party (Iran) set an unacceptable condition, as he “demanded that the head of state step down from his position.” “This is a condition that is an insult to the Iraqi state and its president.”

Al-Azzawi agrees with what was stated by the presenter of the “Witness to the Age” program, Ahmed Mansour, that the Iraqi leadership’s calculations were wrong regarding the war with Iran, and he says that the problems between Iraq and Iran could have been solved through negotiation and the assistance of the UN Security Council, the United Nations, and the League of Arab States.

He pointed out that the same thing happened in the Iraq war on Kuwait, where “there was no reconnaissance or planning, and the invasion could have been avoided and the problem with Kuwait solved.” Al-Azzawi confirmed that he was not satisfied with the invasion.

In his testimony, Al-Azzawi also touches on the role he played when he was an ambassador in New Delhi and Moscow, and in this context he says, “The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, valued Iraq, and solved part of its problem during the war with Iran.”

During his work as ambassador in Moscow, Al-Azzawi says that Saddam appointed him as ambassador for cooperation in the defense industries.

Regarding the relationship between the Iraqi Baath Party and the former Soviet Union, he confirms that the former Soviet Union, as a communist party, did not like the Iraqi state during the Baath rule.

It is noteworthy that the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Gromyko, blamed him because he split the Iraqi Communist Party from Moscow.

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