Iraqi Forces and Iran’s Acceptance of the Iran-Iraq War Resolution

The Iraqis started the war with 400 aircraft and 12 ground divisions.

Those 400 aircraft were shot down during the war and 12 divisions were destroyed, with figures and statistics.

I was responsible for counting these things.

All of them were destroyed. But on the day we accepted the resolution, Iraq had 700 of the world's best aircraft and 56 divisions.

Fifty-six divisions, with one million fighters.

That's the kind of powerful army we were up against.

And we were outnumbered eight to nine, and, um, our leadership used to say, "War, war until victory."

"War until the scourge is eradicated from the world," to that extent.

But was the country's population supporting the front in this way, and could the war be continued this way or not?

The events that took place in the spring of '67— I mean, 1988 and many of the territories that we had captured during the Sacred Defense were successfully retaken by the enemy.

Well, these were events that decisions had to be made about.

The enemy came as far as the outskirts of Ahvaz.

A decision had to be made about it. To counter the Iraqis’ advanced chemical weapons, we didn’t even have a decent mask.

We didn’t have a decent mask. And the mask our fighters wore, the one you see in the films, out of the fifteen chemical agents, might have worked against two or three.

These are good for tear gas. When they used nerve gas, these didn’t work at all.

Our boys fell like autumn leaves. Someone had to make a decision about these things.

And this is ongoing. It continues over time.

Meaning, if we don’t want to one day be forced to accept a resolution, we must become powerful.

We live in a part of the world and among powers that will certainly crush us if we aren’t strong.

We have to be strong. And this strength must develop over time.

One aspect of it, of course, is defense and security.

National unity, national solidarity, the bond between the people and the government and many other things you know about, and they know about.

These things must be present throughout the life of the Iranian nation so this powerful nation can stand strong and grow stronger day by day.

Accepting the resolution is a similar story.

You can't accuse anyone. I mean, it's not as if we can point to a particular period, a particular letter, a particular decision, or a particular sentence. It's nothing like that.