Arming Iraq

Although the United States and Britain maintained a public stance of neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war, Mark Phythian demonstrates that the governments encouraged and facilitated the illegal supply of weapons to Iraq, and to a lesser extent Iran, in order to tilt the war in Baghdad's favor. The objectives of the covert policy agenda were: to keep Iran and Iraq at war so neither country could dominate oil supply or threaten the lower Gulf states, to promote domestic industries and trade, and to secure intelligence information. While the United States and other countries believed they were…