history of Iraq

…group effected a coup in Iraq. ʿAflaq began to coordinate movements between the two governments and to hold unity talks with Nasser. He distrusted Nasser, however, and wanted to strengthen Baʿthist rule in Iraq and Syria by simply identifying with the Egyptian’s enormous prestige. The talks brought no important results.…

While maintaining control of Iraq, Alp-Arslan nevertheless shunned that country in order to avoid such clashes of interests with the caliphate, the seat of which was there, as had complicated Toghrïl’s last days.

…British withdraw in 1961, but Iraq claimed the country, and it was deterred only by British and later by Arab armed forces. In 1970–71 Bahrain and Qatar became independent and subsequently acquired control of Western oil concerns operating in their territories. Their way of life was transformed as oil revenues…

By the late 9th and early 10th centuries the last remnant of the caliphal state was Iraq, under control of the Turkic soldiery. Political decline and instability did not preclude cultural creativity and productivity, however. In fact, Iraq’s “generation of…

…all-encompassing economic sanctions levied on Iraq by the UN Security Council in 1990 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait are often cited as an example of sanctions that went far afield of their targets. Iraq was known to import roughly 70 percent of its food. Although the sanctions were intended to…

…meanwhile, provoked and tempted neighboring Iraq into starting yet another war in the arc of crisis. The secular Iraqi regime was nervous about the impact Iranian events might have on its own large Shīʿite population. The Kurdish minority, which had resorted to terrorism in pursuit of its goal of a…

between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s. The incredibly deadly and destructive nature of the conflict left a long legacy, including the proliferation in the development of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Iran. The war placed tremendous strain on the countries’ resources, a factor that precipitated…

agricultural loans made to Iraq during the Ronald Reagan administration were used to purchase weapons with the administration’s knowledge. However, no evidence was ever found to prove this allegation.

…by Israeli aircraft against an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981—that although there had been a use of force in certain cases, that force was not directed against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or against the purposes of the UN. In the Corfu Channel case, Britain insisted…

the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), because Iraq required access to Jordan’s port of Al-ʿAqabah. Jordan initially supported Iraqi president Saddam Hussein when Iraq occupied Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, but it eventually agreed to the United Nations’ trade sanctions against Iraq, its principal trading partner, and thereby put its whole…

…in a federal union with Iraq. In July, however, Faisal and his family were killed in an army coup in Iraq led by Iraqi army officer ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Qāsim.

Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the subsequent Persian Gulf War (fought principally in January–February 1991) forced Hussein to choose between two allies, the United States and Iraq. The king leaned heavily toward Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who also received a zealous and…

The first Iraqi claim to Kuwait surfaced in 1938—the year oil was discovered in the emirate. Although neither Iraq nor the Ottoman Empire had ever actually ruled Kuwait, Iraq asserted a vague historical title. That year it also offered some rhetorical support to a merchant uprising against…

…of hostilities between Turkey and Iraq in 1925, between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925, between Peru and Colombia in 1933, between Greece and its neighbours in 1947, between the Netherlands and Indonesia in 1947, between India and Pakistan in 1948, between

…in 1984 from bases in Iraq. The PKK sought an independent Kurdish state or, possibly, full Kurdish autonomy. With between 5,000 and 10,000 armed fighters, the PKK directed attacks against government property, government officials, Turks living in the Kurdish regions, Kurds accused of collaborating with the government, foreigners, and Turkish…

Caucasus range and in Iraq, he never was able to catch and defeat the Iranian army. Supply problems invariably compelled him to retire to Anatolia during the winter months, allowing the Persians to regain Azerbaijan with little difficulty. Süleyman finally despaired of defeating his elusive enemies and agreed in…

…control was established over Anatolia, Iraq, and much of Rumelia.

…as did PLO support for Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein, who had invaded Kuwait in August 1990 but was defeated by a U.S.-led alliance in the Persian Gulf War (1990–91). Funds from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Persian Gulf states dried up. The Palestinian community in Kuwait, which had consisted of…

…attack and subsequent reconstruction of Iraq, though he later claimed that Poland had been misled about the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons-of-mass-destruction program.

…political leadership was challenged when Iraq, after having rejected attempted Saudi mediation, reasserted its earlier claims and invaded neighboring Kuwait on August 2, 1990, precipitating the Persian Gulf War (1990–91). The Kuwaiti government fled to Saudi Arabia, and King Fahd denounced the Iraqi invaders. Fearing that Pres. Saddam Hussein of…

Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French- and British-administered areas. Negotiations were begun in November 1915, and the final agreement took its name from the chief negotiators from Britain and France, Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot.

…Baghdad) was the regent of Iraq (1939–53) and crown prince to 1958.

…years of Seljuq influence in Iraq.

…to the new state of Iraq, which had been placed under British mandate by the Supreme Allied Council earlier that year. He established an all-Iraqi ministry and provincial administration, subject to British supervision; organized an Iraqi army; and conducted the referendum in which the emir Fayṣal was elected king as…

…a sphere of influence in Iraq. To ease resistance to British rule, Britain decided in March 1921 to sponsor Faisal as king of an Iraqi government with which Britain would conclude a treaty providing for eventual independence. Faisal accepted the plan and was enthusiastically welcomed in Iraq, where he was…

…Arab dynasty that ruled central Iraq from its capital at al-Ḥillah in the period from about 961 to 1150. The Mazyad family, which belonged to the Bedouin tribe of Asad, had settled along the Euphrates River, between Hīt and Kūfah, in the middle of the 10th century; soon afterward the…

…the newly formed Republic of Iraq.

…1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. After condemning the aggression and imposing economic sanctions on Iraq, the council authorized member states to use “all necessary means” to restore “peace and security” to Kuwait. The resulting Persian Gulf War lasted six weeks, until Iraq agreed to comply with UN resolutions and…

…Commission (UNSCOM), charged with disarming Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and monitoring Iraq’s compliance with United Nations-mandated weapons restrictions. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was established by the United Nations Security Council in 1999 and remained active until 2007.

… to ensure the elimination of Iraq’s supposed ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The commission was to monitor the elimination of any discovered weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 km (93 miles), and related production facilities and thus conducted on-site inspections of Iraq’s…